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December 05, 2007
Long Live the King
Today is King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday. King Adulyadej is the king of Thailand. I found out that not only is his birthday one day before my brother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Oupie!), he is also the world's longest serving monarch. How cool is that!
I remember when I was in Bangkok 10 years ago, and the country was celebrating his 70th birthday. They erected huge and very flattering images of him all over the city. That's on top of the normal Thai custom of displaying the King's and Queen's pictures in your house as an homage and a sign of loyalty to a very beloved leader.
In Thailand (formerly known as Siam, which means I am Siamese if you please), it is the custom when paying respect to the Buddha that you bow on the floor 3 times to the Buddha and 3 times to any monk or nun. Because the King and Queen are so revered, they are considered demi-gods. So in their presence, you bow to them in the same manner you would to the Buddha or the monks/nuns, but you bow only once.
Though Thailand is led by a monarchy, the country has been run as a democracy since the 1980s with the royal family acting as respected figureheads. This doesn't mean they don't have power or say in what happens in government. In fact, I think part of the reason last year's military coup ended was because the King publicly denounced it. And to disobey the king would almost be considered sacrilege. I've even heard stories of people going to jail for defacing or vandalizing his picture.
Another very interesting fact about Thailand is that during the rule of the nine kings, it has never been ruled by another country such as India was once ruled by Britain.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej is also referred to as King Rama IX, the ninth king to serve the country. ("Rama" means king and is a term taken from the Hindu god Rama.) He has been serving Thailand for 61 years now. So I'd like to wish him a happy birthday--long may he live!
Posted by Amy at December 5, 2007 09:58 AM
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