Historic Figures: The Siamese

Note: The Europeans who arrived in the early nineteenth century were appalled by the "half-naked savages" they found and their "beast-like groveling" in the presence of the King. This attitude is reflected in the writings of Anna. The following tries to give a balanced portrayal of the real people and point out inaccuracies in the various interpretations.

Mongkut and Chulalongkorn (see the separate articles)

OTHER SIAMESE
The Kralahome or Prime Minister
His name was Chao Phya Si Suriyawongse. Anna had lived in his palace for several months when she first arrived in Bangkok and claimed to have been very friendly with his wife. The way in which he is portrayed varies from source to source, but he was very much the autocrat. He was instrumental in bringing Mongkut to the throne, served as his Prime Minister and then as regent for Chulalongkorn during his minority. As the later, he effectively ruled the country, reportedly doing things in the new King's name but without his consent. It has been suggested he even wished to become the King himself. He made his son Prime Minister under Chulalongkorn and one of his half-brothers was the Foreign Secretary. When Chulalongkorn reached his majority, the Kralahome tried to keep control, but the new young King gradually managed to assert himself and rule the country.

According to one source, the Kralahome arrested and executed the husband of Fanny Knox on trumped up charges because she had refused to marry his own grandson.

The Harem and the Wives
Although there were only about one hundred 'wives' (and many of those were in name only), the entire population of the harem was about 9,000, that of a small town. Every wife had a household and servants of her own as did every one of the King's children. The servants were of all ranks, including slaves. With a few exceptions, such as the mendicant monks, no men over the age of eleven were allowed in the harem; it was administered by lady officials, and there were no eunuchs. Life for most seems to have been pleasant; when King Mongkut issued a proclamation permitting women to resign from his harem, only a handful did. Polygamy, common among all classes, lasted until 1935 when a law was passed refusing legal status to second wives.

The harem was guarded by a corps of four hundred amazons in daffodil-colored uniforms. (While the original Amazons were the women warriors described by Herodotus, the term soon became applied to all female warriors, especially those of Siam.) Among the elite of the King's palace guard, under Mongkut, they were led by Ma Ying Taphan. Her troops were considered to be the best trained and most loyal of all the King's soldiers, never defeated in battle.

Lady Thiang was indeed a head wife but she was not the mother of Chulalongkorn as depicted in The King and I. In contrast to many of the women, she had considerable freedom to leave the harem.

The wife interested in Uncle Tom's Cabin was Lady Son Klim, not the slave Tuptin. She was in disfavor but still allowed to join the others in lessons. No one ever wrote a play such as the one depicted in the musical.

The 'Real' Story of Tuptim (as told by Landon)
Tuptim was an offering to Mongkut but was not a gift from Burma. According to Landon she fell in love from afar with Khun Phra Palat, a favorite disciple of Abbot Chao Khun Sa of the Wat Rachapradit. (He frequently came to the harem with other monks, but did not know Tuptim.) Finally she managed to get out by disguising herself as a disciple with a robe and shaved head and eyebrows and, when the usual parade of priests came to the harem for alms, she joined them. She managed to get into the monastery and join the other novices, living undetected with the group. She was finally discovered and imprisoned in a dungeon. At her trial she refused to tell who supplied her with the robe. Both she and the monk were condemned and tortured on a scaffold right by Anna's house. Tuptim insisted all the guilt was hers, the monk was innocent. After torture, they were publically burned. The King later repented and erected a memorial to them which asserted that they would never return to earth, i.e. they would attain Nirvana and not be reincarnated.

Note: Many details of this version of the story as told by Anna and, in turn, by Landon are highly suspect, taken almost word or word from an earlier French account of an incident in an earlier reign. Actually the woman involved in the historic incident was never harmed in any way. In particular, stories of dungeons were fabricated; there were no dungeons in Bangkok because of the high water table. Consorts who misbehaved were disgraced but not harmed; none were ever burnt.

Slavery
Slavery in Siam was a very different institution than in contemporary America. For one thing, it was not racial. Slaves came from every nationality and social class. Many slaves were prisoners of war and debtors. Others "sold themselves"into slavery in exchange for food and security. In most instances they were well treated and were faithful to their masters. While not free, they were treated as part of the family and, when freed, they often returned to their former masters to receive food, medical attention, etc.. They were allowed to buy their freedom and those who mistreated them could be punished.

The Children
Each royal and noble child had its own household. The children of the King, even the larger ones, were carried everywhere by slaves and seldom walked in and out of a room by themselves.

The Second King
The concept of a dual kingship dated back several hundred years. Only the first king had actual power and the 'Second King' often chafed at the bit. The Second King to Mongkut was his half-brother Pinklao whose own desire to become King was thwarted, first when Mongkut left the monastery, and again when Mongkut designated Chulalongkorn as his heir. A toady of the Krahalome, the regent, he had his own private army and he managed to have his own son made Second King to Chulalongkorn in defiance of the tradition that the second king was a brother of the King.

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Revised
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