According to the
Portuguese chronicler Mendez Pinto, she came to the throne in 1584 as a sister of the murdered Patani king after twenty years of instability in the country. There was apparently a lack of male heirs as a number of them were murdered in this period of political turbulence and violence. Raja Hijau adopted the title of
peracau derived from the Siamese royal title
phra chao. Early in her reign she saw off an attempted coup by her prime minister, Bendahara Kayu Kelat. She ordered that a dam be built to divert water to a dug channel to ensure supply of water to Patani. She ruled for 32 years, and brought considerable stability to the country. During her reign, trade with the outside world increased, and European traders such as the Portuguese and Dutch came to the port. The majority of the merchants were said to be
Chinese merchants, of which the most important of them, such as the leading commercial official
Datu Sirinara, had converted to Islam and adopted Malay court etiquette. The first Dutch Company agents visited this region of what is now southern Thailand during her reign in 1602, while the English arrived in 1612. According to
Jacob van Neck's writing in 1604, he reported a relatively prosperous state under Raja Hijau, who was "one well-disposed to merchants". The arrival of the European also led to conflicts, and the Dutch attacked English ships in Patani, which led to the withdrawal of the English from Patani even though Raja Hijau ordered that the English be protected. ==References==