OBITUARY : KING BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ
OBITUARY
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
The world’s longest-reigning monarch who did not expect to become King of Thailand but who took on the role with a certain enigmatic and cunning dignity
Bhumibol Adulyadej did not expect to become King of Thailand, but when his older brother met with a violent and mysterious death in 1946, King of Thailand is what he nevertheless became.
He went on to earn the title of world’s longest-reigning monarch, reaching some 70 years on the throne: seven more than Emperor Hirohito of Japan and, so far, six more than Queen Elizabeth II. In that time he grew to personify his country’s blend of nationalism, Buddhism and monarchism.
Unusually for a Thai king, he was born in the United States. That and his prowess as a jazz saxophonist brought him much public attention in the West, but at home he was as diligent in preserving his nation’s ancient traditions as he was in pressing the case for its modernisation.
King Bhumibol — pronounced poo-me-pon — was the ninth king in the Chakri dynasty and the great-grandson of King Mongkut (Rama IV), the 19th-century Siamese ruler who hired an English teacher, Mrs Anna Leonowens, as a tutor for his children and thereby provided the inspiration for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. Though clearly a music aficionado, Bhumibol was not a fan of either the Broadway show or the Yul Brynner movie, taking the view that both traded in crude stereotypes about Thailand, which continued to be known as Siam in the West until the 1960s.
The country had formally changed its name to Thailand in 1939, but remained a land in which the magic and majesty of monarchy was scarcely touched by modern democracy. Bhumibol became the embodiment of patriotism and a symbol of stability through nearly 50 otherwise turbulent years of modernisation. To this day every household in Thailand prominently displays a photograph of him, and it is considered disrespectful for commoners to point their feet at it.
During his rule Thailand suffered insurrections and military coups, but the king’s charisma was such that his personal authority was never challenged. His judgment, meanwhile, went unquestioned — not least because under the country’s stringent lèse-majesté law public criticism of the royal family was punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
On his slight yet sacred shoulders the people of Thailand have long hoisted their disparate dreams for the future — and because the country was run by a military-led government, they saw him as a political arbiter. Although his direct powers were slight he was sometimes able to resolve political crises through symbolic interventions. In May 1992, for example, when public demonstrations calling for a return to democratic rule were brutally suppressed by the military, Bhumibol summoned his prime minister, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, and the most prominent opposition leader, who was under arrest, Major-General Chamlong Srimuang, and ordered them on live national television to negotiate a settlement of their differences. Not only that, they also had to crawl on their knees before him in order to receive a royal dressing down. Such a ritual humiliation of political leaders by the monarch was unprecedented, but it had the desired effect. Elections were held in September of that year and won by parties unaligned to the military.
As criticism of him was punished, his judgment went unquestioned
Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father was studying medicine at Harvard. He was educated in Bangkok and went on to study engineering at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, later switching to law. He felt at home in the West, speaking fluent English, French and a smattering of German.
His uncle, Eton-educated King Prajadhipok, abdicated in 1935, having failed to come to terms with the leaders of a military coup in 1932 who challenged the absolutism of the monarchy. Eleven years later, in June 1946, Buhimbol’s elder brother, Ananda Mahidol, who succeeded to the throne at the age of nine, was found dead in bed with a bullet in his head and a revolver by his side. There were rumours that he had committed suicide and, in spite of a seven-year murder trial and the execution of three palace staff, there has never been a satisfactory explanation of his death, which was officially deemed an “accident”. Lord Mountbatten was said to have taken such a dim view of the matter that he advised George VI to avoid agreeing to a state visit from King Bhumibol on the grounds that he was suspected of regicide.
The Siamese legislature unanimously selected Prince Bhumibol to succeed his brother as king, and appointed a three-member council of regency to guide the new monarch in the affairs of state. A year later, in the wake of the political turmoil that accompanied the death of King Ananda, Marshal Phibunsongkhram, who had backed the Japanese during the Second World War, came to power as a military dictator. In the circumstances, Bhumibol preferred to complete his studies in Lausanne. He was not crowned until 1950 when, in accordance with Siam’s ancient coronation rites, he placed a nine-tiered jewel-encrusted crown upon his own head at a ceremony attended by a mere hundred people: priests, parliamentarians, members of the royal family and the most senior foreign diplomats.
A month earlier he had married Sirikit Kitiyakara, the pianist daughter of a Thai diplomat whom he met when her father was ambassador to London. The New York Times lyrically described the event as “the shortest, simplest royal wedding ever held in the land of gilded elephants and white umbrellas”.
As well as enjoying driving powerful sports cars fast — a crash in Switzerland left him blind in one eye — Bhumibol loved suspense fiction, Alfred Hitchcock films and photography. Time magazine was ungenerous in the conclusions it drew from this, writing that the king “did little else but organise a swing band, tinker with cameras, and drive fast cars”. Yet he was also a skilled yachtsman, winning a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games, as well as an accomplished jazz saxophonist. He favoured the New Orleans style and would serenade his people on television every Friday night, performing live with his 13-piece jazz band from the royal radio station. He was also a composer of professional standard and on a state visit to the United States in 1960, took part in an impromptu jazz session with the great Benny Goodman.
Time’s characterisation was unfair in another sense. Far from being a playboy, Bhumibol cut a rather shy and withdrawn figure in spectacles. In the early years of his rule he was unwilling to assert himself in his country’s affairs and carried out only routine monarchical functions.
However, in 1958, one of Thailand’s fairly frequent coups brought to power Field Marshal Sarit, a military leader who imposed a ruthless authoritarian administration, stamped out radical dissent and called for a restoration of traditional values, including an appeal for loyalty to the king. It was the first time such an appeal had been made and Bhumibol thus found his feet in his own country and began to undertake, seriously, his royal duties. From that time on, he fulfilled his constitutional role with a dedication that earned him popularity and respect from all sides, even the most radical.
His sense of justice and his desire for political freedom and stability soon became apparent. He travelled throughout the country, astonishing peasants who had never seen a monarch before and successfully discarding the aloof manner of his first years as Thailand’s king. His trips were quite a spectacle. Convoys of some 40 Land Rovers would navigate dusty and bumpy country roads, sometimes accompanied by a helicopter gunship circling overhead.
Bhumibol’s new-found confidence was much in evidence during his state visits abroad — especially to America and Britain, where he attracted considerable media attention. He became canny about projecting a public image as a modernising traditionalist.
In a similar way he managed to modernise the monarchy at home while adhering to traditions that his people held dear. He became a Buddhist priest, for example — briefly — as all Thai monarchs had done before him.
Thailand, which had escaped colonial rule, did not escape the postwar currents of nationalism and communism that surged through Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, yet Bhumibol intervened on several occasions to halt the excesses of military governments. There were a series of turbulent periods, including a three-year “democratic revolution” between 1973 and 1976, which was followed by another spell of authoritarian military rule. It was not until 12 years later, in 1988, that an elected leader came to power as prime minister, albeit a retired military figure.
Three years further on, Bhumibol gave his approval to a bloodless coup by the military against the elected government of the day that, he said in a royal decree, had “failed to gain the people’s confidence and failed to maintain peace and order”.
During his reign King Bhumibol gave more than 25 Thai prime ministers his blessing. Twelve were military officers, an indication of the perpetual political role of the armed forces in Thai society.
In 1993, in response to a personal appeal by John Major, then prime minister, Bhumibol pardoned two young English women who had been jailed in Bangkok for smuggling heroin.
In keeping with tradition he took his turn briefly as a Buddhist priest
The 1996 golden jubilee celebrations of his accession were a spectacular affair, drawing many visitors and bringing with them a feeling that continuity, peace and stability had at last befallen King Bhumibol’s country. Only in 2006, when he seemed to tacitly endorse yet another coup, was he suspected of interfering in the political process.
A wave of mourning is now expected to course through Thailand as a long period of lying in state begins. The management of the raw, nationwide grieving — and scenes of quasi-religious fervour — will require sensitivity and finesse, not least because the military junta that seized power in a coup two years ago derives its authority from the monarch — and the future of the monarchy is far from certain.
Bhumibol Adulyadej is survived by Queen Sirikit, their three daughters and a son, Prince Vajiralongkorn, the Millfield School-educated heir apparent. The crown prince’s lurid private life has inspired much gossip and indignation in Thailand, especially with regard to his promiscuity. He is prone to violent mood swings and is considered to be “unpredictable to the point of eccentricity”. In 2009 a home video appeared briefly online showing him with his third wife as they celebrated his birthday. Apart from a g-string, she was naked and was seen eating birthday cake from a plate on the floor, at his behest, along with their poodle, Foo Foo, who the crown prince had appointed an air chief marshal.
Vajiralongkorn has since parted company with her and had some of her family members arrested in a police corruption scandal. In 2010, in a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, a senior Singaporean foreign ministry official claimed the prince had a gambling habit that was partly funded by Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former prime minster. In a separate leak, the US ambassador to Bangkok mentioned his string of extramarital affairs with air stewardesses, his habit of interfering in politics and his “embarrassing financial transactions”.
His sister Princess Sirindhorn, by contrast, is regarded as a direct inheritor of her father’s appetite for national development and for mastery of musical, linguistic and artistic pursuits. One member of the Privy Council expressed a preference that she succeed to the throne, and spoke “almost hopefully” of the possibility that Vajiralongkorn’s precarious lifestyle might hasten that eventuality. In any event, her private life has been scandal free, like that of her father, the accidental monarch.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand was born on December 5, 1927. He died on October 13, 2016, aged 88
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