From shy student to symbol of unity in unstable times
King Bhumibol: Thai monarch: b Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 5, 1927; m Mom Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara; 3d, 1s; d Bangkok, October 13, 2016, aged 88.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand was the world’s longest serving constitutional monarch and played a unique role at the centre of national life.
The only Buddhist monarch in the world, Bhumibol (pronounced Poomipon) was unexpectedly elevated to the throne when he was 18 on the mysterious death by shooting of his brother Ananda in 1946.
At the time, the institution of monarchy in Thailand was at a low ebb. Absolute monarchy had been abolished following a military coup two decades previously, and for the better part of those years no king had been in residence and republican sentiments were strong.
The young Bhumibol had spent most of his life abroad and at the time of his accession was studying at Lausanne University. The new king, a shy, bespectacled, almost withdrawn young man, took the dynastic name Rama IX and became the ninth sovereign of the Chakri dynasty.
Despite these inauspicious beginnings, over the following decades Bhumibol turned Thailand’s new constitutional monarchy into a resounding success. During years of political turmoil and rapid change which saw numerous coups or attempted coups and more than 20 prime ministers, he was seen as a consistent, selfless presence and symbol of national unity.
For most of his reign he was credited with being a moderating influence on corrupt politicians, scheming bureaucrats and ambitious generals; it was only recently that some suspected him of interfering in the political process, to the extent of tacitly endorsing a coup in 2006.
In his first address to the Thai Parliament after his coronation in 1950, the king urged its members to do everything in their power to prevent the entry into Thailand of communism from neighbouring countries. Deeply conservative by nature and with a strong belief in stability and order, he was convinced that improving the lot of the peasants would be the best protection against the spread of communism, and thereafter he devoted himself to that end.
He developed an extraordinary rapport with ordinary Thais, and would spend most of every year travelling between palaces around the country, meeting local people, visiting rural projects or entertaining dignitaries.
Foreign ambassadors to Bangkok would often be dragged from the capital’s cocktail party circuit to spend days bumping around the outback inspecting drainage schemes.
There seemed no end to the good works in which King Bhumibol was involved. They ranged from lettuce farms and cottage industries such as silk or cotton weaving to dams, schools, clinics and even rain generation plants. He led development programmes in the poorest parts of the country and funded many of them himself. Successful projects would be passed on to the government for further development.
King Bhumibol took great care to recreate the mystique that had surrounded Thai kings of old and revived ceremonies that had not been used since the time of his grandfather, Rama V. He demanded, and usually received, absolute respect from his subjects. Every Thai house contained a prominent photograph of the bespectacled monarch, but it was considered impolite for a commoner’s feet to point directly at the picture. Those meeting the king were expected to do so with heads bowed, on their knees.
But it was not just his good works and popularity that boosted the royal image. That was also protected by a draconian lese-majeste law which made it an offence punishable by between three and 15 years in jail to ‘‘defame, insult or threaten’’ any member of the royal family.
The law was strictly enforced, and as recently as January 2009 an Australian writer was jailed for insulting the monarchy. ‘‘The moment you take away the mystique,’’ King Bhumibol said, ‘‘the moment you expose the institution to the daily scrutiny of the modern media, you’ve had it.’’
Prince Somdet Phra Chao Yu Hua Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in 1927, in Massachusetts, the son of Prince Mahidol of Songkla, half-brother and heir of the last absolute monarch of Thailand, King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) and the younger son of King Chulachomklao (Rama V, reigned 1868-1910).
The Chakri dynasty into which he was born dates to 1782. Prince Bhumibol’s great-grandfather King Mongkut (King Chomklao, reigned 1851-1868) was splendidly, if inaccurately, brought to life in Anna and the King of Siam and, later, The King and I.
Prince Bhumibol’s father, Prince Mahidol, had married a Siamese commoner and studied to be a doctor. When Prince Bhumibol was born, he was studying public health and medicine at Harvard and his wife was studying nursing and economics at Simmons College close by.
Later, while the family were living in Switzerland, political changes in Thailand started the chain of events that would eventually elevate the young Prince Bhumibol to the throne.
By the time of his coronation, the king had married Princess Mom Rachawong Sirikit Kitiyakara, a great-granddaughter of a former king and thus a distant cousin. In the 1960s she would be described as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world.
King Bhumipol had first met Princess Sirikit in Paris, where her father was serving as ambassador. She was 15 years old and training to be a concert pianist. While in hospital recovering from a motor accident, King Bhumibol asked to see her and they soon became engaged.
After their wedding, on April 28, 1950, the king completed his studies in Switzerland before they returned to Thailand in 1951. He was ordained by the Supreme Patriarch on October 22 at the Royal Chapel of the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace.
King Bhumibol remained sensitive to the way in which Thailand is perceived by the outside world. As well as making numerous state visits, he often employed his powers of clemency to secure the release of Westerners held in the country’s jails.
As king, he would serenade the population every Friday night on the saxophone, performing with a jazz group in the studios of the royal radio station. He would also become the first Asian composer to be honoured by being made a member of the Viennese Institute of Music and Arts.
The king had been a keen sportsman, fond of skiing, tennis and diving. A skilled sailor, he once sailed a dinghy single-handed across the dangerous Gulf of Thailand; in 1967 he won a gold medal in dinghy sailing for Thailand at the fourth South-East Asia Peninsula Games.
Although the king continued to be revered by most Thais, the palace had recently come in for some unprecedented, if discreet, criticism. There were allegations that the royal advisers interfered in politics, specifically that they played a part in inspiring the bloodless military coup of 2006 that ousted the democratically elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra, who had been prime minister for five years.
King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit had one son and three daughters who, according to official sources, were all ‘‘deeply involved in activities to better the lot of the Thai people and are themselves loved and respected’’.
The truth, suppressed in Thailand, was rather different. As a student in America, the king’s eldest daughter, Princess Ubol Ratana, fell in love with an American fellow student and settled in the US. Her photograph never appears in public in Thailand.
His son, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, was widely regarded as a playboy, and rumours about his dissipated lifestyle were legion. After divorcing his first wife, claiming that she spent too much time playing table tennis, he married a commoner by whom he already had teenage children. That marriage ended when his second wife walked out to live with a retired air marshal in London.
In 1996, on the day his father celebrated 50 years on the throne, the prince pinned a proclamation on the walls of the palace accusing his wife of adultery.
In recent years, however, the prince’s standing has improved as he assumed more of his father’s ceremonial duties and he has succeeded his father to the throne.
– Telegraph Group