THAILAND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH - ZENJOURNALIST

For Bhumibol, it was a personal tragedy. In his declining years, after devoting himself for well over half
a century to the task of reviving the prestige of the palace as the unifying sacred core around which his
country revolved, he was watching his life's work crumble before his eyes.
Nobody had ever thought he would inherit the throne of Thailand, least of all Bhumibol himself, son of a
celestial prince who saw no future for the monarchy and a mother with no royal blood who was orphaned
as a child. Bhumibol grew up in Switzerland, a world away from the arcane universe of Siam's royal court
which appeared to be dimming into insignificance and extinction. He was pulled gradually into the orbit
of the palace as his elder brother Ananda unexpectedly found himself first in line for the royal succession
before even more unexpectedly becoming the reluctant Rama VIII. And then one momentous morning in
June 1946, Ananda was found dead in his bed in the Grand Palace, shot in the head, a mystery that has
never been solved, and 18-year-old Bhumibol Adulyadej was suddenly the ninth monarch of the Chakri
Dynasty.
It was a position that had already been stripped of almost all of its formal powers and most of its wealth.
Ananda's death deepened doubts that the Thai monarchy would survive at all. The fortunes of the
House of Chakri appeared to be at their lowest ebb. Yet over succeeding decades, against seemingly
insurmountable odds - not to mention the tide of history - Bhumibol restored a central role for the
palace in Thailand and won the adoration of the vast majority of his people as the beloved "Father of the
Nation". In the words of journalist Paul Handley in his groundbreaking academic biography The King
Never Smiles:
King Bhumibol Adulyadej's restoration of the power and prestige of the Thai monarchy is one of
the great untold stories of the 20th century....
Overnight, the happy-go-lucky, gangly, and thick-spectacled Bhumibol... became King Rama IX,
holy and inviolate sovereign of a land whose language he spoke poorly, whose culture was alien
to him, and whose people, compared to those of Switzerland, seemed crude and backward.
From the day of his brother's death, the story of Bhumibol's reign developed like a tale from
mythology. After four more years in Europe studying, Bhumibol finally returned in 1950 for an
opulent formal coronation. He married a vivacious blue-blooded princess, Sirikit, who would
become world famous for her charm and beauty. They had four children, including one handsome
boy to be heir and three daughters.
A figure of modernity in a feudal-like society stuck in the 1800s, the young king sailed, played
jazz, ran his own radio station, painted expressionist oils, and frequented high-society parties.
Whenever required he donned golden robes and multi-tiered crowns ... to undertake the arcane
rituals and ceremonies of traditional Buddhist kingship...
At each juncture, his power and influence increased, rooted in his silent charisma and prestige.
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