MONGKUT — Rama IV
r. 1851 - 1868

Mongkut was an absolute monarch and had never been out of Siam, but was he the intellectual and gracious ruler pictured in Thai history or the egomaniacal, mercurial autocrat depicted in The King and I? (For one thing, as shown by his pictures, he had hair, even in old age.)

The son of Buddha Loetia Nabhalai, or Rama II, he had seventy-two brothers and sisters. When only twelve, he was put in charge of the Siamese army and, at age fourteen, was ordained as a novice monk spending seven months at a temple. When he was twenty, his father died, his older half brother was elected King, and Mongkut entered a monastery, supposedly for the rest of his life, leaving a wife and two children. While there he undertook the serious study of Buddhism and was disturbed by its condition in Siam. Working for reform, he founded a strict sect which still exists today. He also travelled the country with his begging bowl and learned how the ordinary people lived.

Known as the 'scholar King', he was highly intellectual. He studied Latin, English*, science and mathematics, and all Western learning, becoming familiar with ten languages, and beginning a correspondence with British officials. Eventually he became the abbot of the monastery. He was interested in all religions and had theological discussions with missionaries. After twenty-seven years, his brother, the King, died and Mongkut was elected his successor. He took the name Phra Chom Klao (only the Europeans still called him Mongkut), and his life suddenly changed from that of a poor, mendicant monk to that of one of the most absolute monarchs in the world.

His study and travels had partially prepared him for his new role, but he had no experience in government. However, he started the reform of education, finances and coinage (establishing a mint to replace the lumps of metal and shells), built the first roads suitable for wheeled traffic, reformed the police force, and introduced the printing press. He started publication of a government gazette and allowed laws to be printed instead of just written in long-hand. Shipping changed almost overnight from junks to modern vessels.

He also changed many customs. Conscious of the impression of Siam held by foreigners, typified by Anna, he ordered the nobles to wear shirts at court. People no longer had to their hide faces when he approached and were allowed to look directly at him. Instead of staying in his palace as had his predecessors, he soon became a familiar figure in all parts of the country. He allowed the women in his harem who had no children to leave if they desired. (Only twelve did.) He also tried to help slaves and to give women a choice in marriage but was not very successful in either. A devout Buddhist, he respected all religions and gave land to the foreign clergy for their missions.

As depicted in The King and I he corresponded with many foreign leaders and did offer the President of The United States elephants, but it was before Anna's arrival and was it President Buchanan, not Abraham Lincoln.

While Mongkut was friendly toward the west, he was able to hold off the encroachment of those which took control of the rest of Southeast Asia, and he became adept in balancing foreign countries against each other. In treaties negotiated with France, The United States and other countries, he yielded a little to preserve a lot. He donated land at Bangkok for a British Consulate and helped fund its construction. However, while Bangkok was the capital, government was still carried on in the home of officials, and there was no professional army to speak of.

On the personal side, he was very fond of his eighty-two children by over thirty wives. (He actually had over one hundred 'wives', but all did not give him children. All told there were over 9,000 women, including slaves and attendants, living in his harem. In spite of the splendor of his palaces, his private quarters were relatively simple and filled with scientific instruments. Before the arrival of Anna he had arranged for his wives to receive English lessons from the missionaries. However, their preaching got in the way (they taught only from religious texts and the Bible) and, after three years, he stopped the lessons.

In 1868 he correctly predicted an eclipse of the moon. He and his son Chulalongkorn, took a trip to the jungle to observe it. He invited many foreign dignitaries to "come to a spot 99^o42' longitude and 11^o39' latitude" to meet at a pavilion built for the occasion. The eclipse took place exactly as predicted. However, it was in a marshy area and, while there, both father and son contracted malaria. Chulalongkorn recovered, but Mongkut died.

Mrs. Matoon, the wife of one of the missionaries described how Mongkut was caught between two worlds, part Oriental despot and part modern scientist, very cruel, very tender-hearted, very brilliant.

* The study of English was particularly difficult in Siam at that time. No Thai-English dictionary existed and every word had to be translated from Thai to ancient Sanskrit and then the English equivalent deduced from a Thai-Modern Sanskrit dictionary. This produced some strange results in translations. He also took steps to 'modernize' the Thai language which had lacked a former grammar. Thirty of his four hundred decrees dealt with the language, and the missionaries with whom he studied wrote Thai dictionaries and grammars.

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Revised
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