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