Thai king was seen as voice of reason
Monarch showed common touch, inspired affection from his subjects
In an age when most of the world’s blue bloods cut ribbons and meekly approved whatever their governments proposed, the 70-year reign of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej stood out in sharp relief, perhaps a throwback to a long-vanished past.
Enjoying an almost godlike status, Bhumibol wielded real political power and inspired mass popularity as the world’s longestreigning monarch.
Despite being held in great reverence, the king waded through rice paddies and trudged up hillsides to improve life for Thailand’s have-nots. He could squat humbly with lowland farmers and opiumgrowing hill tribesmen to talk about crops, irrigation and even their marital problems.
Bhumibol guided his country through political upheaval and wrenching social and economic change, and yet, in his final years, more Thais questioned the need for a powerful monarchy in the 21st century. Some critics believed its dependence on the king hindered democratic development. It is almost certain his successor will not have the same influence.
When the Royal Palace announced that Bhumibol had died on Oct 13 at the age of 88, there was an immense outpouring of grief. Since September 2009, he had spent most of his time in hospital, first with a lung infection and then for physical therapy and other ailments.
Born in the United States while his father was studying at Harvard University, Bhumibol was widely regarded by generations of Thais as the key stabilizing force in their politically fractious country, and many fear a dangerous vacuum after his passing. The frail-looking, soft-spoken man in spectacles squelched coups and rebellions three times with just a gesture or a few well-chosen words.
As the nation once known as Siam hurtled from an agrarian society to a modern, industrializing nation of 70 million, he upheld traditional values and spearheaded thousands of projects. He travelled the country to seek solutions for problems of inadequate food, water, health and jobs, aiming to set examples for the government to build on.
“They say that a kingdom is like a pyramid: the king on top and the people below,” he once told an Associated Press reporter. “But in this country, it’s upside down. That’s why I sometimes have a pain around here.” He pointed to his neck and shoulders.
Although not extravagant, Bhumibol was the world’s wealthiest monarch and one of its richest individuals, with a fortune estimated at about $30 billion.
Criticizing the king in general is dangerous in Thailand because speaking ill of the royal family is a crime punishable by imprisonment.
Even so, the nation teems with sincere signs of affection for Bhumibol. Taxi windows proclaim Long Live the King, and ubiquitous posters depict him not only as an exalted figure in glimmering robes, but also as an ordinary-looking man.
Courtiers and Thai guests to his palaces approached him on their knees and addressed him using a special royal vocabulary. But his common touch was evident in the countryside, where he rolled up his sleeves in service of the poor.
In his twilight years, however, his legacy was at least somewhat eroded by political and social divisions that erupted in mass street protests and a 2006 military coup. Suspicions that the palace took sides against the elected prime minister began eroding monarchy worship, and Thais who would never have dared criticize the king in his heyday began asking whether the monarchy’s power had advanced or impeded Thailand’s march to full-fledged democracy. In ill health and near-seclusion, the king did not directly participate in the debate.
An uprising in the Muslim-dominated south further frayed the national unity for which Bhumibol had worked all his life. Despite the royal family’s hands-on efforts to win hearts and minds, the conflict has claimed more than 5,000 lives since early 2004.
Even the forces of nature seemed to conspire against him when the worst flooding in almost six decades hit Thailand’s north and central regions in 2011. The king had taken a special interest in water management, researching floods and drought and suggesting solutions.
Disillusioned in recent years with societal greed, environmental destruction and the sidelining of traditions, the king said he tried to move with the times.
“A constitutional monarch must change with the country, but at the same time he must keep the spirit of the country,” he said. People may be different, he said, “but the common character of the people must be embodied by the king.”
With Bhumibol’s passing, the world’s longest-reigning monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the British throne in 1952.
Bhumibol was born Dec. 5, 1927 in Cambridge, Mass., while his father, Prince Mahidol of Songkhla, was studying medicine at Harvard University. Mahidol died less than two years later.
In 1946, Bhumibol’s 20-year-old brother, King Ananda Mahidol, was found dead of a gunshot wound in a palace bedroom under circumstances that remain mysterious. Bhumibol, just 18, was named king the same day but returned to Switzerland to continue studying law and political science.
He played a half-dozen musical instruments, jammed with U.S. jazz greats and wrote a song, Blue Night, that was used in a racy Broadway musical a month after his May 5, 1950 coronation. He raced yachts and expounded in several languages on Buddhist philosophy and dam construction.
Thailand’s power brokers initially thought the young king could be easily manipulated. But the various strongmen found more than their match as he set about restoring the prestige of a sevencentury-old monarchy whose absolute powers weren’t bound by a constitution until 1932.
A week before his coronation, he married Sirikit Kitiyakara, the daughter of an aristocrat and diplomat. She had helped nurse him back to health after a 1948 road accident blinded him in his right eye. Together they bridged East and West, visiting nearly 30 countries early in their reign.