พระธาตุขามแก่น เสียงแคนดอกคูน ศูนย์รวมผ้าไหม ร่วมใจผูกเสี่ยว เที่ยวขอนแก่นนครใหญ่ ไดโนเสาร์สิรินธรเน่ สุดเท่เหรียญทองแรกมวยโอลิมปิก ("Phra That Kham Kaen. The sound of the khaen and the golden shower tree. Center of silk. United in the Phuk Siao tradition. Travel to Khon Kaen, the big city. Sirindhorna dinosaurs. Spectacular first gold in Olympic boxing.")
A Sanskrit inscription of the Zhēnlà king Citrasena comes from the moated site of Wat Si Mueang Aem, and the oldest inscription from the province, of the eighth century, is in Old Mon. Khon Kaen University and the provincial hospitals make the city a medical and educational centre of Isan.
History
Several bronze and iron tools used as axes have been discovered in the province, along with a bronze ring attached to a skeleton. A copper axe from the province, of 4,600 to 4,800 years ago (2800 to 2600 BC), has been reported as the oldest in Southeast Asia.
A Sanskrit inscription of the Zhēnlà king Citrasena, K.1102, comes from the moated site of Wat Si Mueang Aem in Ban Dong Aem area, about forty kilometres north of Khon Kaen and 200 m from the Suea Ten canal.:91,97:76 Brick ruins, a stone Nandi and a shivalinga have been found inside the moat.:91,97 Chaowanee Lekkla places the site 500 km north-west of Sambor Prei Kuk by that canal.:91,97 It is the northernmost of nine inscriptions recording Citrasena-Mahendravarman's victories beyond the Dangraek range, which Sarah Talbot, on Coedès and Vickery, treats as cries of victory that do not imply permanent occupation.:76
During the Dvaravati period, Khon Kaen was influenced by the culture of the central region. The oldest inscription found in the province dates to the 8th century and is written in the Old Mon language. It has been read as evidence of Mon people in the area at that time.:93 Talbot, on Jacques, reports a short undated inscription held in the National Museum in Khon Kaen that is entirely in Mon except for a Khmer phrase meaning lord of the lower surface, which designates kingship.:79 The Dvaravati culture is believed to have played a significant role in the region, and the Nyah Kur people are thought to be descendants of the Dvaravati Mon people.:75 During the 10th–11th centuries and onwards, the area came under Khmer influence, as evidenced by various inscriptions.:166 The area fell into the control of Lan Xang before coming under Central Thai control.
Dvaravati sema stones from the province have also been studied and re-used. Piriya Krairiksh published a study in 1974 of sema in the Khon Kaen National Museum carved with scenes from the Mahānipāta jātakas.:266 At Ban Bua Semaram in Chum Phae district a sema marks the boundary of the village, set beneath a modern road sign. Stephen Murphy gives it as an example of the stones being put to a use of the villagers' own.:278
Vimoltip Singtuen and colleagues examined the stone itself at two sites in the province in 2025. At the ancient town of Non Nong Khu in Ban Ruea subdistrict, Phu Wiang district, a broken sema 83 cm high lay inverted beside a laterite road at the northeastern edge of the moat. A sandstone pillar 140 cm high and smaller worked pieces were found nearby.:4 Thin-section petrography and portable X-ray fluorescence classed all of them as sublitharenite of the Phu Kradung Formation, on which the town stands. An unfinished sema at Tham Phra Kho Khat, in Nong Phai subdistrict of Chum Phae district, is quartz arenite to sublitharenite matching the Phra Wihan Formation of the surrounding Phu Wiang range.:2,5 The authors conclude that each site drew on stone close at hand, but note that some samples carry two geochemical signatures and may mix material from more than one source.:6,8
At Tham Phra Kho Khat a rock shelter holds a seated sandstone Buddha 64 cm high whose head has been rebuilt in cement and gilded. A stone marker, possibly a sema, was removed from the site, and three fragments were later recovered, one carved with the axis of a stupa.:9 Surface survey at Non Nong Khu produced earthenware, high-fired Khmer and Lan Xang wares, Chinese porcelain, spindle whorls, stone rollers, tobacco pipes and iron-smelting slag.:2 The surveyors divided the finds into a Dvaravati–Lopburi phase of about the 8th to 13th centuries and a Lan Xang phase of about the 16th to 19th.:8 Satellite imagery and geographic information systems were used to identify further settlements, iron-smelting sites, salt-production areas and cart tracks in the same area. The survey also found that local landform words such as non, kok, don and kut often mark places with archaeological remains.:2
The first city of the area was established in 1783 when Rajakruluang settled there with 330 people. King Rama I made Rajakruluang the first governor of the area when establishing tighter connections with the Isan area. The main city was moved six times until in 1879 it reached its present-day location at Nuang Kaw. Khon Kaen was under the governance of Udon in the early period of Rattanakosin, c. 2450 BE. Khon Kaen was incorporated as a city in 1797. Mancha Khiri was among the towns detached from Suwannabhumi and made part of Khon Kaen province after 1797.
Symbols
The seal of the province shows the stupa (tower) of Phra That Kham Kaen, which is believed to contain relics of Buddha. A tree is depicted on each side. One is a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis), the other a Golden Shower Tree (Cassia fistula). The Thai name of the golden shower means 'providing support and preventing a decline', and it is also the provincial flower. The provincial tree is the pink shower tree (Cassia bakeriana), the Thai name of which translates as 'wishing tree'. The provincial aquatic life is the edible carp Osteochilus melanopleura.
Culture
Sinxay
Representations of characters from Sang Sinxay on lampposts in Khon Kaen
Lamppost finial depicting Sinxay
Lamppost finial depicting Siho
Lamppost finial depicting Sangthong
The mayor of Khon Kaen in 2005 chose Sinxay to be the new identity of Khon Kaen and had finials designed representing Sinxay and his two brothers, Siho and Sangthong. The story of Sang Sinxay is a work of Lao literature written by Pang Kham in 1649, during the Lan Xang period.
Geography
Khon Kaen occupies part of the Khorat Plateau. The Chi and Phong Rivers flow through the province. The total forest area is 1,222km2 (472sqmi) or 11.5 percent of provincial area.
National parks
The province has four national parks. Three of them belong, with three others, to region 8 (Khon Kaen) of Thailand's protected areas. Phu Kao–Phu Phan Kham falls in region 10 (Udon Thani). (Visitors in fiscal year 2024)
The numbers 26 to 28 were reserved for three other planned (minor) districts: Phu Kham Noi, Nong Kae, and Non Han.
There are plans to split off the northwestern part of the province to form a new province centered at Phu Wiang. The other districts which will belong to this new province are Nong Ruea, Chum Phae, Si Chomphu, Phu Pha Man, Nong Na Kham, and Wiang Kao.
Local government
As of 26 November 2019 there are: one Khon Kaen Provincial Administration Organisation (ongkan borihan suan changwat) and 84 municipal (thesaban) areas in the province. Khon Kaen has city (thesaban nakhon) status. Ban Phai, Ban Thum, Chum Phae, Kranuan, Mueang Phon and Sila have town (thesaban mueang) status. Further 77 subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon). The non-municipal areas are administered by 140 Subdistrict Administrative Organisations - SAO (ongkan borihan suan tambon).
Khon Kaen province has a variety of basic education institutions.
Primary schools are under the jurisdiction of the Khon Kaen Primary Educational Service Area Office, which comprises five districts. Local administrative organizations cover 43 educational opportunity expansion schools, and two are under the jurisdiction of Khon Kaen University.
Secondary schools fall under three jurisdictions:
Secondary Educational Service Area Office 25, covering 84 secondary schools in Khon Kaen Province.
Province Khon Kaen, with an HAI 2022 value of 0.6532 is "somewhat high", occupies place 22 in the ranking.
Since 2003, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Thailand has tracked progress on human development at sub-national level using the Human achievement index (HAI), a composite index covering all eight key areas of human development. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has taken over this task since 2017.
12"ข้อมูลสถิติดัชนีความก้าวหน้าของคน ปี 2565 (PDF)"[Human Achievement Index Databook year 2022 (PDF)]. Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) (in Thai). Archived from the original on 15 July 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2024. , page 19
↑"Number of local government organizations by province". dla.go.th. Department of Local Administration (DLA). 26 November 2019. Archived from the original on 26 November 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019. , 5 Khon Kaen, 1 PAO, 1 City mun., 6 Town mun., 77 Subdistrict mun., 140 SAO.
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