Ha Tien
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Hà Tiên city Thành phố Hà Tiên |
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| City | |
 Hà Tiên city
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| Coordinates: 10°23′N 104°29′E / 10.383°N 104.483°E | |
| Country | Vietnam |
| Admin. division | Kiên Giang Province |
| Population (2002) | |
| • Total | 39,957 |
Hà Tiên is a district-level town in Kiên Giang Province, Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Area: 8,851.5 ha, population (2002): 39,957. The town borders Cambodia to the west.
Hà Tiên is a popular tourist site of the region thanks to its beautiful beaches and landscapes.
A settlement and a port seem to have existed at the site of the present town of Hà Tiên from a very early period. Ptolemy's Geography identified a town there as Akadra and that it was the port for the Cambodian district of Pithonobaste - Banteay Meas, all this being part of the Kingdom of Funan. The local capital of this district, also called Banteay Meas, was not on the coast, but located about a day's journey up the Giang-thành river. The name Banteay Meas, (Khmer: បន្ទាយមាស, Thai: บันทายมาศ; lit: "golden ramparts"), referred to the bamboo fortifications once used about the town. The town of Hà Tiên was originally known under the Khmer, name of Piem or Peam (Khmer: ព឵ម, Thai: เปียม, Chinese: 港口; also Pie, Pam, Bam), the Khmer for "port", "harbour" or "river mouth", while the Vietnamese called it Mang-Kham, from the Vietnamese term for the Khmers, "mang". It was through this port that Buddhism is said to have reached Cambodia, brought there by chance when a ship carrying Buddhaghosa was blown there by a storm in 415 AD. Buddhaghosa had with him the famous Emerald Buddha statue, for many centuries thereafter a state treasure of Cambodia and later Laos, until it was carried away by Thai invaders to be placed at its present location in the Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.
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