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Mongkut
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- Sometimes, especially in Thai language documents, King Mongkut might also refer to Vajiravudh (Rama VI) , reigning title Phra Mongkut Klao Chaoyuhua (????????????????????????).
- Rama IV redirects here. For the fourth book in the Rama series see Rama Revealed
Phrabat Somdet Phra Pormen Maha Mongkut, Phra Chom Klao Chaoyouhua, or Rama IV (October 18, 1804 - October 1, 1868) was the fourth king of Siam 1851-1868) of the Chakri dynasty and one of the most revered monarchs of Siam.
Outside of Thailand he is best-known as the King in the play and film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam - in turn based on the writing of Anna Leonowens about her six years at his court.
In his reign, the pressure of Western expansionism was felt for the first time in Siam.
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- Sometimes, especially in Thai language documents, King Mongkut might also refer to Vajiravudh (Rama VI) , reigning title Phra Mongkut Klao Chaoyuhua (????????????????????????).
- Rama IV redirects here. For the fourth book in the Rama series see Rama Revealed
Phrabat Somdet Phra Pormen Maha Mongkut, Phra Chom Klao Chaoyouhua, or Rama IV (October 18, 1804 - October 1, 1868) was the fourth king of Siam 1851-1868) of the Chakri dynasty and one of the most revered monarchs of Siam.
Outside of Thailand he is best-known as the King in the play and film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam - in turn based on the writing of Anna Leonowens about her six years at his court.
In his reign, the pressure of Western expansionism was felt for the first time in Siam. Mongkut embraced Western innovations and initiated the modernization of Siam, both in technology and culture—earning him the epithet "The Father of Science and Technology" in Siam.
Mongkut was also known for his appointment of his brother, Prince Chutamani, as vice-king. Prince Chutamani was crowned in 1851 as King Pinklao. Mongkut himself assured that Pinklao should be respected with equal honor to himself. Mongkut's reign was also the time when the power of the House of Bunnak reached the zenith and became the most powerful noble family of Siam.
Early life
Mongkut was born to Prince Isarasundhorn, son of Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke the first Chakri king of Siam, and Princess Bunreod in 1804 as their second child at the Old (Thonburi) Palace. He was later joined by his brother Prince Chutamani, who was born in 1808. In 1809, his father Prince Isarasundhorn was crowned as Buddha Loetla Nabhalai. The prince himself was nine at the time and they all moved to the Grand Palace.
Monastic Life and Thammayut sect
In 1824, at age 20, Mongkut became a Buddhist monk, according to Siamese tradition (that men aged 20 should become a monk), with ordination name Vajiraña?o. However, the same year, his father Buddha Loetla Nabhalai died. According to succession traditions, Mongkut was to be crowned the next king. However, the nobility instead put the influential Prince Jessadabodindra, his half-brother, on the throne. Perceiving that the throne was irredeemable, Mongkut chose to stay in his monastic status to avoid political intrigues.
Mongkut became one of the members of royal family who devoted his life to the religion. He travelled all around the country as a monk and saw the relaxation of the rules of Pali Canon among the Siamese monks he met - which he considered inappropriate. In 1829, at Petchaburi, he met a monk named Buddhawangso who strictly followed the canon. Vajirayan admired Buddhawangso for his obedience to the canon and inspired his religious reforms.
The monk Vajirayan then established the Thammayut Nikaya or Thammayut sect in 1833. The new sect reinforced the canon law. The Thammayut sect gained royal recognition in 1902 by Mongkut's son Chulalongkorn (through Ecclesiastical Polity Act) and became one of the two major Buddhist denominations in modern Thailand. (see Buddhism in Thailand) In 1836, he became the first abbot of Wat Bowonniwet, which is sponsored by the royal family to this day. During his time as a monk, Bhikkhu Vajiraña?o discovered Western knowledge, studying Latin, English, and astronomy with missionaries and sailors. King Mongkut would later be noted for his excellent command of English, although it is said that his younger brother, Vice-King Pinklao, could speak it even better.
Reign as King
The sources varied about the will of Jessadabodindra about the succession. It is recorded that Jessadabodindra verbally dismissed the royal princes from succession for various reasons, including Prince Mongkut for his encourage of monks to dress in Mon style. However, this can be easily fixed compared to the other princes giving the idea that Jessadodindra was indeed intended to give the throne to his half-brother.
Some said that, however, Jessadabodindra wished his throne to be passed to his son, Prince Annop, and that he gave his bracelet passed down from Buddha Yotfa Chulaloke to the prince. However, Dis Bunnak switched the bracelet for a forged one, thus preventing the throne from being inherited by the prince Annop.
Prince Mongkut was indeed supported by Dis Bunnak, the Samuha Kalahom, the most powerful noble of the late reign of Rama III. Bunnak sent his men to perform the leaving-from-monk-status ceremony for Prince Mongkut even before Jessadabodindra's death. With the support of powerful nobility, Mongkut ascension to the throne was ensured.
After his twenty-seven years of pilgrimage, King Mongkut ascended the throne in 1851, aged 47. He took the name Phra Chom Klao, although foreigners continued to call him King Mongkut. His awareness of the threat from the British and French imperial powers, led him to many innovative activities. He ordered the nobility to wear shirts while attending his court; this was to show that Siam was no longer barbaric from the Western point of view.
However, Mongkut's own astrological calculations pointed out that his brother, Prince Isaret, possessed as powerful fate as his to be the monarch. So, Mongkut then crowned his brother as King Pinklao, the second king. As a prince, Pinklao was known for his abilities in foreign languages and relations. Mongkut also raised his supporter Dis Bunnak to Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Prayurawongse - Somdet Chao Phraya was the highest rank of nobility equaled to the royalty - and made him his regent kingdom-wide. Mongkut also appointed Dis' brother, Tat, as Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Pichaiyat, as his regent in Bangkok. As the result, the administrative power laid greatly in the hands of two Bunnaks.
Upon coronation, Mongkut married his first wife, Queen Somanat. However, Queen Somanat then died in the same year. He then married his half-grandniece, Mom Chao Rampoei Siriwongse, later Queen Debsirindra.
Cultural Reforms
In 1852 saw the large influx of English and American missionaries into Siam as Mongkut hired them to teach English language for the princes. He also hired Western mercernaries to train Siamese troops in Western style. In Bangkok, American Dan Beach Bradley had already reformed the printing and then resumed the publishing Siam's first newspaper - Bangkok Recorder. However, the missionaries barely did the conversion. Reportedly, King Mongkut once remarked to a Christian missionary friend: "What you teach us to do is admirable, but what you teach us to believe is foolish".
However, Mongkut didn't abandoned the traditional culture of Siam. In 1852, he ordered the nobles of the court to wear upper garments. Previously, Siamese nobles were forbidden to wear any shirts to prevent them from hiding any weapons in it and met the king bare-chested. It subjected to the debate of Westerners and Mongkut finally ended.
For Buddhism, Mongkut pioneered the rehabitilation of various temples. He also began the Mekak (???????) festival in the full moon of the third lunar month, to celebrate Buddha's announcement of his main principles. And he instigated the Recompilation of Tripitaka in Siam according to Theravada traditions. Of course, he formally established the Thammayut sect as a rightful branch of Theravada.
Mongkut also improved the woman's right in Siam. He released a large number of royal concubines to find their own husbands. This was what readily contrasts what have been dramatized. He banned the forced marriages of all kinds and selling one's wife to pay the debt.
In contrast to the previous king, Jessadabodindra, Mongkut didn't see the importance of sending envoys to Qing dynasty. The last mission was sent in 1853 and Mongkut eventually ceased it because the mission symbolised Siam's subjection to the Qing and because the Qing was then not so powerful, as herself was threatened by Western powers.
The Bowring Treaty
In 1854, John Bowring the Governor of Hong Kong, in the name of Victoria of United Kingdom, came to Siam for a treaty. For the first time Siam had to deal seriously with international laws. Prayurawongse negotiated on the behalf of the Siamese. The result was the Bowring Treaty, which was regarded as an unequal treaty imposed by British Empire. The main principle of the treaty was to abolish the Royal Storage (?????????????), which since Ayutthaya times owned the monopoly of foreign trade. The Royal Storage had been the source of Ayutthaya's prosperity as it collected immense taxation on foreign traders - including the taxation according to the width of the galleon and the tithe. Western products had to go through series of tax barriers to reach Siamese people.
The Europeans, of course, had been attempting to undo this monopoly for a long time but no serious measures had been taken. For Siamese people, trading some kinds of goods with foreigners subjected them to severe punishment. The taxation was partially reduced in the Burney Treaty. However, in the world of liberalism of the nineteenth century, such unequal and government-interfered trade would barely exist.
The abolition of such trade barriers replaced the Siamese commerce with the free trade. Import taxation was reduced to 3% and could only be collected once. This, of course, was a blow on the national revenue. However, this led to the dramatic growth of commercial sectors as common people then gained access to foreign trade. Never before in Siam was agriculture for sale and exports rather than subsistence farming (Before Bowring, those who traded rice with foreigners would be executed for treason). People rushed to acquire vast, previously empty fields to grow rice and the competition eventually resulted in the lands ending up in the hands of nobility.
Bowring Treaty also had a legal impact. Due to the horror of Nakorn Bala methods of torture in judicial procedures, Westerners chose not to be trailed by such measures. Britishmen in Siam subjected to the British law but the Siamese in Britain subjected to the British law.
This was the grant of extraterritoriality to the British Empire.
More treaties were then made with other powers, further undermining national revenue and legal rights. The Bowring treaty was, of course, the economic and social revolution of Siam. Mongkut's reign saw immense commercial activities in Siam for the first time, which led to the introduction of coinage in 1860. The first industries in Siam were rice milling and sugar production. The infrastructure was improved e.g. paving of roads and canal digging - for transport and water reservior for plantations.
Anna Leonowens
In 1862, on recommendation by Tan Kim Ching in Singapore, an English woman named Anna Leonowens, whose influence was later the subject of great Thai controversy. It is still debated how much this affected the worldview of one of his sons, Prince Chulalongkorn, who succeeded to the throne. Her story would become the inspiration for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, as well as the Hollywood movies of the same title, which, because of their incorrect historical references and supposedly disrespectful treatment of King Mongkut's character, were for some time banned in Thailand as the Thai government and people considered them to be lèse majesté (an illegal insult to the king or monarchy). To correct the record, well-known Thai intellectuals Seni and Kukrit Pramoj in 1948 wrote The King of Siam Speaks (ISBN 9748298124). The Pramoj brothers sent their manuscript to the American politician and diplomat who drew on it for his 1961 biography, Mongkut the King of Siam ISBN 0801490693. Moffat donated the Pramoj manuscript to the United States Library of Congress in 1961.
Anna claimed that her conversations with Prince Chulalongkorn about human freedom, and her relating to him the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin, became the inspiration for his abolition of slavery almost 40 years later. It should be noted, however, that the slavery system in Siam was very different from that in the United States, where slavery was based on race. Slavery in Thailand was often voluntary and due to economic condition. One could be punished for torturing slaves in Siam and some 'slaves' could buy their freedom.
Later scholars rely to a remarkable extent upon the conclusions of Jean Baptiste Pallegoix and Bowring. Bowring and Pallegoix are clearly the implied European observers behind Robert Pendleton's comment that "The slaves were, by and large, not badly off. European observers generally reported that they were better off than freemen servants in Western society" (1962:15). Citing Pallegoix, Bruno Lasker writes that "since they were essential to the support of their owners, they enjoyed a relatively humane treatment" (1950:58). Also citing Pallegoix, Virginia Thompson writes, "Though their condition varied...their status was always comparatively easy and generally humane" (1967[1941]:599). Citing Pallegoix and Bowring, R. B. Cruikshank writes, "In any event, most observers suggest that slaves in Siam were very well treated" (1975:320; see also Bacon 1881:296; Bock ([1884] 1986:159; Colquhoun 1885:189, 267; Freeman 1910:100; Garnier 1873:171-72; Graham 1924:237-38; Pallegoix 1854:299; Turpin 1771:87, quoted in Lasker 1950:57; Wales 1965:63; Wilson 1962:96).
Not only have scholars argued that slaves were well-treated, but many have argued that the entry into servitude was the voluntary economic decision of the slave. Bowring cites as evidence "the fact that whenever they are emancipated, they always sell themselves again" (1969 [1857]:193)."
Death and Legacy
Astronomy was always Mongkut's interest. In 1868, when he invited Sir Harry Ord, the British Governor of Straits Settlements from Singapore, as well as a party of French astronomers and scientists, to watch the total solar eclipse of August 18, which King Mongkut himself had calculated two years earlier, at (in his own words) "East Greenwich longitude 99 degrees 42' and latitude North 11 degrees 39'." The spot was at Wakor village in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, south of Bangkok. King Mongkut's calculations proved accurate, but during the expedition King Mongkut and Prince Chulalongkorn were infected with malaria. The king died six weeks later in the capital, and was succeeded by his son, who survived the malaria.
As in 1868, the foreigners again filled in Siam. However, they came with the new colonialism. Mongkut had initiated the reforms and modernization of traditional Siam, as Siam gained acceptance and became a rightful nation in world diplomacy. The Western threats would be immense in the reign of his son Chulalongkorn.
Contrary to popular belief, King Mongkut did not offer a herd of war elephants to President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War for use against the Confederacy. He did, however, offer to send some domesticated elephants to President James Buchanan, to use as beasts of burden and means of transportation. The royal letter, which was written even before the Civil War started, took some time to arrive in Washington DC, and by the time it reached its destination President Buchanan was not in office any longer. In his replying letter Lincoln, who succeeded Buchanan as the US President, respectfully declined to accept King Mongkut's proposal, explaining to the King that American steam engines could also be used for the same purposes.
External links
- : Entry to Thai Historical Data - Mongkut's Edicts maintained by Doug Cooper of Center for Research in Computational Linguistics, Bangkok; accessed 2008-07-11.
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