Hà Tiên Islands () is an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

located in the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand (), historically known as the Gulf of Siam (), is a shallow inlet adjacent to the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. ...

. It constitutes Tien Hai Commune of

Hà Tiên Hà Tiên is a Provincial city (Vietnam), provincial city in Kiên Giang Province, Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Its area is and the population as of 2019 is 81,576. The city borders Cambodia to the west. Hà Tiên is a tourist site of the region th ...

An Giang Province An Giang is a Provinces of Vietnam, province of Vietnam. It is located in the Mekong Delta, in the country's southwestern part. Geography An Giang is located in the upper reaches of the Mekong Delta. The Bassac River, Hậu Giang and Tiền R ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Since

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s used to plague the region in the past, another popular name for the islands is Hải Tặc Islands (, literally "Pirate Islands").

Geography

The Hà Tiên Islands lie off the coast of Hà Tiên, to the east of

Phú Quốc Phú Quốc () is the largest island in Vietnam. Phú Quốc and nearby islands, along with the distant Thổ Chu Islands, are part of Kiên Giang Province as Phú Quốc City; Vietnam's first island municipality. The island has a total area o ...

Island. The archipelago is in turn , and away from the coast of Hà Tiên, the mainland of Vietnam and Phú Quốc Island. There are in total 16 islands (other sources cited: 14 ) locating close to one another with a height of less than , and among those, Hon Doc () is the largest entity. The total area of the islands is spreading out over a water area which is in length and in width. Islands are composed primarily of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

Fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

is scarce.

History

Etymology

The Hà Tiên Islands were also formerly known as Pirate Islands since the late 17th century and early 18th century when it served as pirates' dens. Pirates departing from here attacked and seized large merchant ships from China and the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

. The islands were still known as Hải Tặc ("Pirate") Islands under the administration of

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

. On July 28, 1958, an

ARVN The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forces of the Vietnamese National Army ...

military mission visited the islands and later erected a sovereignty

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

which still stands on the western part of the island Hon Doc.

Piracy in the past

Due to the rugged topography as well as the position on the important trade route, the islands were the ideal base for pirates to hide, ambush and attack crossing merchant ships for a long time. The golden era of piracy was when Hà Tiên fell into anarchy following the defeat of

Mạc Thiên Tứ Mạc Thiên Tứ ( vi-hantu, 鄚天賜, , , December 12, 1699 or December 16, 1705 or January 1, 1718 – June 18, 1780), also known as Mạc Thiên Tích () or Mạc Tông (, ), was a Vietnamese leader who ruled Hà Tiên from 1735 to 1771 ...

's administration by Siamese army. Meanwhile, foreign ships with which pirate vessels mingled still had freedom of navigation in the area. Even when the French occupied Hà Tiên, this area was still being ravaged by piracy. There are some rumors about pirate treasure hiding in Hà Tiên Islands. In March 1983, an American and a British departing from Phú Quốc Island secretly visited the island of Hon Tre Nho () in the archipelago and brought radios, cameras, binoculars, nautical charts. After being captured by local residents, two men claimed that they had a 300-year-old map passed down by their ancestors depicting pirate treasure. In 2009, some fishermen accidentally found a quantity of ancient coins.

Demography

Only 6 to 7 islands in the archipelago are inhabited. According to Decree No. 47/1998/ND-CP establishing the town of Hà Tiên in 1998, Hà Tiên Islands had 1,055 inhabitants. In early 2012, the island had more than 420 households with nearly 1,800 people.

Economy

Local residents live mainly by

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. In 2011, the total output of marine products was 22,000 tons. Per capita income is about 48 million đồng (nearly 2,300 U.S dollars). The water shortage in the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

has been solved thanks to a freshwater reservoir. In 2007 and 2008, Kien Giang provincial government laid down a policy to lease a number of islands of Ha Tien Islands to develop marine

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ha Tien Islands Archipelagoes of Vietnam Landforms of Kiên Giang province Islands of the Gulf of Thailand