The story of how Mon people came to settle on Ko Kret is a sad one. Long after the Mon civilisation of Dvaravati had been incorporated into the Lanna kingdom of what’s now northern Thailand in the 13th century, the Mon stronghold of Hongsavatoi — in what’s now lower Burma — was sacked by a Burman army in 1757. In the brutal genocide that ensued, the invaders killed tens of thousands of Mon people.
Many of those who escaped fled west over the mountains, eventually settling along the Chao Phraya river in Siam, the predecessor to modern Thailand. After such a horrific attack, it’s no surprise that the Mon sought isolated areas like Ko Kret, a flat stretch of land that had been transformed into an island when a canal was dug in 1722 to shorten the route to Ayutthaya.