King of Thailand - Bhumibol Adulyadej - Part 1

[Braveheart]

Bhumibol Adulyadej (Thai: ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; IPA: [pʰu:mipʰon adunjadeːt]; Royal Institute: Phumiphon Adunyadet;)(born December 5, 1927), officially styled "the Great" (Thai: มหาราช, Maharaja) and also known as Rama IX, is the current King of Thailand. Having reigned since June 9, 1946, Bhumibol is the world's longest-serving current Head of State and the longest-serving monarch in Thai history.

 

Although Bhumibol is a constitutional monarch, he has several times made decisive interventions in Thai politics, including the political crisis of 2005-2006. Bhumibol has been widely credited with facilitating Thailand's transition to democracy in the 1990s, although in earlier periods of his reign he supported military regimes. Most recently, he did not oppose the September 2006 coup which overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Bhumibol uses his great wealth to fund numerous development projects, particularly in rural areas. He is immensely popular in Thailand, and is revered as a semi-divine figure by many Thais. Critics, mostly outside Thailand, attribute this status to the suppression of criticism of the monarchy.

 

Bhumibol was born in the United States and educated primarily in Switzerland. Bhumibol is also an accomplished musician, artist, and sailor. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world and has received many honours.

 

Early Life

King Ananda Mahidol, his grandmother Queen Savang Vadhana, and Prince Bhumibol in 1938.Bhumibol was born at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts located in the United States, the youngest son of Mahidol Adulyadej, Prince of Songkhla and son of King Chulalongkorn, and Mom Sangwal (later Somdej Phra Sri Nakarindhara Boromaratchachonnani). At the time of his birth, he was known in Thailand as Phra Worawongse Ther Phra Ong Chao Bhumibol Adulyadej (พระวรวงศ์เธอ พระองค์เจ้าภูมิพลอดุลยเดช), reflecting the fact that his mother was a commoner. Had he been born just a few years earlier, before his uncle King Prajadhipok passed a law allowing children of a prince and a commoner to be called Phra Ong Chao (a prince of a lesser status than Chao Fa), he would have been called Mom Chao (the most junior class of the Thai princes), similar to his older brother and sister.

 

Bhumibol was brought back to Thailand in 1928, after Prince Mahidol finished his medical study at Harvard University. After primary schooling at the Mater Dei school in Bangkok, he left with the rest of his family in 1933 for Switzerland, where he continued his secondary education at the