Thailand’s King Rama 9th – A Star Of Asia –Statesman, Soldier, Dhammaraja
In the afternoon of October 13, 2016, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty, passed away at age 88, in the 70th year of his reign. I ran to a café in Sukhumvit to watch the announcement, as the Bangkok streets grew quiet, people huddled around TV screens, many sobbing in disbelief. It was, the Bangkok Post wrote: “our most feared moment, we knew it would happen, but when it did the blow was grave…We grew up watching him tirelessly devote his time, energy and money to help the needy across the country. He was true to his promise.”
Honoring King Rama 9th at the Grand Palace, Bangkok, October 14th, 2016
The following day I went to the Grand Palace to join the half million people who came to witness the solemn motorcade bearing the King's body from Siriraj Hospital to the Dusit Maha Prasat throne hall. People shared water and food, made way for elderly mourners, gave comfort to those overcome with grief or suffering from the heat. A young lady from Bangkok held my hand as the motorcade passed and I succumbed to tears. For so many years I loved and admired this great and good man, an artistic prodigy who excelled in science and statecraft, a catalyst of modern Asia who made his nation an axis of global influence, who stated, when he ascended to the throne in 1950 at age 23, “My place in this world is being among the Thai people.”
King Rama 9th, Coronation Day - The Young King - watercolors by Maura Moynihan
Throughout the King’s Year of Mourning, Thai TV played endless, fascinating newsreels of the king’s childhood in Switzerland, the ancestral rites of coronation, his marriage to the ravishing Queen Sikirit, daughter of the Thai Ambassador to Paris, ordinance as a Buddhist monk, state visits across Europe and Asia, and a triumphant tour of the United States in 1960, where the stylish young royals were showered with a ticker tape parade in New York City, and the King had a famous uptown jazz jam with Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa.
King Rama 9th with the people of Thailand
Yet for most of his reign, King Bhumipol did not make state visits around the globe: he stayed in Thailand. Newsreels showed a man of action, marching through floods and fields, in military fatigues or a sports jacket, holding maps and cameras, kneeling the dust to talk with his people. When he was enthroned as a constitutional monarch in 1950, Thailand was emerging from the Japanese occupation of World War 2, and most Thais lived in rural poverty. The young king skillfully navigated political intrigue, communist rebels, and the escalation of Marxist insurgencies in Indochina. He created the Office of the Royal Development Project Board which launched thousands of initiatives in infrastructure, health care, education, art and commerce, and swiftly elevated Thailand’s standard of living, fostered national unity, nullified the communist threat, and made Thailand the most stable and prosperous nation in Southeast Asia.
The People’s King – watercolor by Maura Moynihan
King Bhumibol’s father Prince Mahidol, the first Thai graduate of Harvard Medical School, made a love match with Mom Sangwan, later known as the Princess Srinagarinda, who studied nursing. The future King Rama 9th was born on December 5th, 1927. Amb. Peter Galbraith, son of John Kenneth Galbraith, the esteemed US Ambassador to India, shared this history: “My grandfather. Charles Atwater was Consul General of Siam in New York in 1927 when the King's father was studying medicine at Harvard. The Thai constitution requires that the King be born in Thailand. My grandfather came up with the idea of having the State Department cede the princess' room at Mt Auburn hospital in Cambridge to Thailand for the 24 hours. Thus, Bhumibol remained eligible to become King.”
Prince Mahidol died while working in a leper colony in Thailand when his son was 3 years old. King Bhumibol, his brother Prince Ananda Mahidol and his sister Princess Galyani Vadhana, were raised in Switzerland by their single mother during World War 2, when the dictator Field Marshall Philbunsongkram drove his uncle Rama 7th into exile in England and joined forces with the Japanese fascists. When the Axis powers were defeated, Field Marshall Philbunsongkram summoned the monarchy back. Bhumibol was named king in 1946 at age 19, then returned to Switzerland to complete his education. He spoke English, Latin, French, German and Thai, earned his baccalaureat des lettres and studied science at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and was coronated in 1950 at age 23, in a grand ceremony in Bangkok.
The Princess Mother with her son King Rama 9th and his sister Princess Galyani Vadana - The King with Queen Sirikit – collages by Maura Moynihan
Rama 9th is also known as the Jazz King, and Thai TV broadcast his many live concerts, he played saxophone, trumpet, tuba and piano, and the elegant, lush hit songs he composed and recorded echoed from every radio, tuk tuk, piano and karaoke bar. My favorites are “Blue Day” “Magic Beams” “Love at Sundown” and “Still On My Mind.” When Benny Goodman and his orchestra performed in Thailand in 1956, Mr. Goodman famously said: “That King of Thailand is the coolest cat in the world.”
1960- Elvis greets King Rama 9th and Queen Sirikit in Hollywood on the set of GI Blues - Benny Goodman & Gene Krupa swing with the Jazz King, New York City
The Jazz King – Le Roi du Jazz – watercolors by Maura Moynihan
Throughout Rama 9th’s Year of Mourning, portraits of the King filled Thailand’s streets and skylines, every Wat, school, and mall had shrines and remembrance books for the King, everyone wore mourning colors of white and black with pins and emblems with the numeral 9, and everywhere the Jazz King’s melodies floated through the air. Galleries, street murals display paintings of the king’s many roles, statesman, monk, soldier, son, husband and father, musician and artist. King Rama 9th was an accomplished painter and photographer, inventor, and patent holder, yet he faithfully preserved the ancient rituals of Siamese kingship and the Buddhist faith while building a secular state. When his death was announced, leaders of Thailand’s Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities spoke of how the king was the anchor of religious harmony. “He was the glue” said a Thai friend, “who preserved our past as he created our future. And he did it with unerring poise –no small feat.”
For 70 years, Rama IX was a constant presence in the lives of his people and was the first Thai monarch to visit every corner of the kingdom. He is known as the father of Thai radio; from childhood he took a keen interest in telecommunications and on his visits to remote regions of Thailand he always carried a walkie-talkie, to be alerted to crises and natural disasters. King Bhumibol created Thailand’s modern university system and for decades personally bestowed the degrees on every single graduate; many visitors to the Grand Palace brought with them treasured photographs of receiving their diplomas from the King’s hand. Thai newspapers ran out of stock, printing special editions with archival photographs and interviews with those who knew the king; his tailor and shoemaker, diplomats noting his fluency in 5 languages, sportsmen who watched him build his own boat and win a gold medal in sailing in in the 1967 Asian Games. In this fading age of kings, Bhumibol Adulyadej was sui generis.
Watching the film footage of King Bhumibol’s life is witnessing the arc of the post-Second World War order. His state visits throughout the world were triumphs, and the exquisite Queen Sirikit ruled the international best-dressed list for years. But Thailand was under siege from a violent Communist insurgency from 1963 to 1983, as it gave sanctuary to thousands of refugees fleeing the Vietcong in Laos and Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. When Saigon fell to the Vietcong in 1975, King Bhumibol summoned his generals to the Grand Palace, laid his hand upon the royal sword of Siam, and vowed that he would never leave his people undefended. The ultimate proof of his fidelity is that he never did, save for a trip to the Laotian border in 1994 where he supervised the opening of a bridge.
Rama 9th - Soldier of Siam – Thailand’s Noble Guardian – mixed media by Maura Moynihan
In his first address to the Thai Parliament after his 1950 coronation, the King expressed his concern that Thailand resist incursions of communist insurgencies from neighboring states, stating that development and education were the best defense against the totalitarian threat. The Thai Communist Party’s 1965-83 violent guerilla war against the state caused many casualties, among them Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit, a noted author, senior advisor and close friend of Queen Sirikit, who was shot and killed in 1977 while delivering aid to royal projects and visiting troops fighting Communists in southern Thailand. Throughout the 30-year Communist insurgency, the King continued to visit rural districts near Laos and Cambodia, with protection from helicopters and infantry.
The 1979 BBC documentary “Soul of a Nation” follows the King and Queen traveling to remote regions targeted by Communist rebels. The King preferred to drive his own land rover deep into the countryside to personally supervise his royal development projects and speak with his people. When BBC reporter David Lomax asked King Bhumibol if he was waging war with Marxists, the king replied that he was “waging war on hunger.” The king deftly rejoined Lomax’s baited question about monarchy being the past and Communism the future, stating that Communism promotes the idea of the “top man” whereas his Buddhist faith valued morality and universal law - “dhamma” - over absolute power.
Thailand’s great Dhammaraja, King Rama 9th, ordained as a Buddhist monk
In his 70-year reign King Bhumipol steered his nation through massive social, economic, and political transformations on a continent besieged by totalitarian regimes which slaughtered millions, destroyed sanghas and lineages, inflicting unspeakable trauma and loss. Many Thais believe Thailand was spared such horrors because of the spiritual force of their monarch. In his coronation address, King Bhumipol Adulyadej stated "I shall reign with Dhamma for the benefit and happiness of all the Thai people” – and he strove to follow the precepts of Dasarajadhamma, a Pali term for the tenfold virtues of the king defined in Theravada Buddhism, whereby the sovereign becomes a dhammaraja, whose virtue bring happiness to his people.
Thai media printed many accounts of miraculous episodes which occurred during Rama 9th’s reign, his unique innovations in rainmaking and agriculture, the discovery of 9 white elephants and the world’s largest solid gold stature, a Sukhothai Buddha of the 13th century, found in a Bangkok warehouse in 1954, just before 1957’s Buddha Jayanti in Varanasi, which marked 2500 years since Gautama Buddha's passing.
King Rama 9th, Queen Sirikit of the Chakri Dynasty; the King, Queen and Thai officials offer prayers to Lord Buddha
A ROYAL FUNERAL AND CREMATION AT KHAO PHRA SUMERU
Friday, October 13, 2017, marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX of the Chakri Dynasty, King of Thailand for 70 years and seven months. 13 million Thais, about one in six in a nation of 68 million, travelled to Bangkok to pay respects to their monarch. Thai newspapers chronicled the construction of a grand crematorium near Bangkok’s Grand Palace; Brahmin priests blessed special trees selected for the structure, the Fine Arts Department of the Office of Traditional Art hired over 7000 artisans to create a grand pavilion adjacent to the Grand Palace, with 132 sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities dwelling in the mystical Himavat, and a central image of Narayana with the visage of King Bhumibol, representing an avatar of the primordial form of Lord Vishnu. 100 craftsmen spent 8 months carving the king’s sandalwood coffin, with 24 Garudas and 64 Apsaras, to lift the king’s soul to the pinnacle of Mount Meru - Khao Phra Sumeru in Thai - when his body is placed upon the funeral pyre.
A concert for King Rama 9th in Korat, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Phra Meru, the cremation site built in the King’s year of mourning at the Grand Palace in Bangkok
On the evening of October 5, 2017, I went to the Grand Palace on the final day for mourners to bid farewell to the King. Sanam Luang, the great field adjacent to the Grand Palace, which for a year served as the waiting area for entrance into the Grand Palace where the King lay in state, where multitudes were given food and drink, medical assistance, even clothing rentals to adhere to the traditional sartorial requirements for the occasion, staffed by volunteers, medics, and military. It was a full moon at the end of the rainy season — Thailand has three seasons: the hot, dry, and wet — and Bangkok was daily drenched by cloudbursts. But on that Purnima night, Lord Indra withheld the rain and a pearl white moon rose above the golden spires of the Grand Palace, as citizens waited in patient queues until 3 am. One grandmother had come 315 times to express her love for her King. “I wanted to be close to my King one more time,” said an engineer from Bangkok, lingering at Sanam Luang after a final pilgrimage to the palace. “For 70 years, we never knew life without him. From my earliest childhood, every night we watched him on television, always working, always helping us. I can’t quite believe that he isn’t here.”
The Development King, watercolors by Maura Moynihan
As the grounds of Sanam Luang were cleared and swept to prepare for the ceremonies leading up the royal cremation on October 26, 2017, many Thais felt a looming sense of finality. The Bangkok Post wrote: “The reign began when we had so little. It ended with us having so much more.”
With Siri Khoman and her family after paying respects to King Rama 9th and the Grand Palace in Bangkok, September 16, 2017
Cremation Day – Farewell, Dhammaraja
On October 26, 2017, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej was cremated in Bangkok. I turned on the television and dissolved in tears, to see the awful finality of the golden chariot bearing the king’s remains, columns of cavalry and infantry pacing towards Khao Phra Sumeru, the site of the funeral pyre. I wept with millions of Thais and people across the globe who loved and admired Thailand’s King of Hearts for 70 years, a man as good and kind and he was industrious and brilliant. I wanted him to live forever.
Lord Buddha said the cause of death is birth, and the time had come to send Rama 9th to his moksha. I joined Thai friends at a local restaurant to follow the livestream on a vast TV screen. We gazed upon the funeral rites Ayutthayan Kings; ancestral pageantry enacted with ceremonious precision in the 21st century. Holding the urn aloft on the chariot was Dr. Pradit Panjaveenin, who cared for the king in his later years at Siriraj Hospital, wearing the white hat of a devadata, a heavenly protector. At dusk the Thai royal family and foreign dignitaries assembled in a vihara near Phra Meru. The supreme patriarch, HH Ariyavongsagatanana, spoke of how Bhumibol Adulyadej embodied the Dasarajadhamma, the Ten-Fold Virtues of a King.
Dr. Pradit Panjaveenin, the King’s doctor, in the white robes of a devadata - artisans create the mystical Himavat at the funeral pyre, Khao Phra Sumeru, Bangkok
Phra Meru, the celestial vessel, gleamed in the twilight haze as Lord Indra withheld the rain. The royal family ascended the golden stairs to the inner sanctum, followed by kings, queens, diplomats, Thai officials and the many volunteers in black shirts and yellow kerchiefs who worked so hard for a full year, to lay a sandalwood flower -“dokmai chan”- upon the royal pyre. TV hosts announced that performances would play simultaneously on 3 stages until 6 AM, also a tradition of Ayutthaya, to celebrate the king’s life and bring cheer to his people in this time of parting. We watched the Khon dance of the Ramakien, the Manorah Ballet with the king’s elegant score, puppet shows, theater, and wave after wave of jazz orchestras, playing the king’s hit songs all the way till dawn.
King Rama 9th’s cremation day, Bangkok, October 26, 2017
At 11:30 PM crowds at Sanam Luang saw coils of smoke rise from the cremation site. Sometime after midnight flames were seen and the crack of fire heard. “My body froze” said a Bangkok grandmother who slept overnight on the sidewalk. “I was blinded by tears. People started wailing and sobbing. I sat there until 4 AM. When the smoke was gone, then I knew my king was gone too.” King Bhumibol melted into his antyesti, Sanskrit for “last sacrifice” of the funereal fires, as his music soared through the night, and the world once more fell in love with the grace and skill of Siam’s artisans, dancers, poets, and musicians. The people of Thailand did their king proud.
Thailand has retained its distinctive culture in because its sovereignty was twice saved by Chakri Kings; Rama IV and Rama V resisted the clutches of 19th European colonialism, in the 20th century Bhumibol defended Thailand from communism, as Cambodia was ravaged by the Khmer Rouge, Laos and Cambodia by the Vietcong. Anand Panyarachun, who twice served as prime minister during King Bhumibol’s reign, expressed what the Thai people saw in their monarch; “His Majesty knew the country by heart. He visited every province. He has crossed through forests, rivers, and mountains. His Majesty had a tremendous sense of responsibility and duty. He was a working king who dedicated his life to the advancement of the kingdom and to improving the lives of his people.”
The following morning, wandering through the streets of Bangkok, I heard the King’s jazz songs floating from tuk tuk radios, I saw his portrait in boutiques and noodle shops, people leafing through Thai newspapers, reading about his life and legacy. The black and white mourning clothes were gone, but King Bhumibol will never leave the land he so loved; he will live forever in the hearts of Thai people.
There is a Tibetan saying that such a leader “is as rare as a star in daylight.” Farewell kind Dharma King, we shall not see your like again.
