Thailand celebrates king's 60 years on throne

Thailand celebrates king's 60 years on throne

By Anusak Konglang

Sun Jun 4, 1:36 AM ET



BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, will mark his 60th anniversary on the throne with days of rituals and feasts -- and royalty from around the world.


The festivities have attracted some of the world's highest-profile royals, including Emperor Akihito of Japan, Prince Albert II of Monaco, King Abdullah II of Jordan, as well as leaders of several Gulf states.

But while some of his fellow rulers have suffered scorn and rough treatment in the press, the 78-year-old monarch is revered with intense devotion here -- a reverence accompanied by a ban on books considered critical of him.

His picture hangs in every taxi, office and shop, and his anniversary will be colored in hues both patriotic and religious, with a two-day holiday in Bangkok to mark the occasion.

"Every time in the past 60 years when our country faces a crisis, he comes out to solve the problem for his people," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Friday. "Thais are very lucky to have the king."

The activities begin Thursday, with three days of religious observances by the royal family, which will be closed to the public but televised live.

On Friday he will make a rare public appearance, standing on the palace balcony to greet the tens of thousands of his subjects expected to crowd onto the Royal Plaza.

Monday and Tuesday have been declared public holidays, largely in hopes of minimizing Bangkok's notorious traffic when royals from Belgium to Bhutan will make their way to the Thai capital.

The king will escort his visitors to the riverside headquarters of the Thai navy, where they will watch a procession of more than 50 royal barges, which have paraded down the Chao Praya River only 14 times during his reign.

On Tuesday evening, the king will host a royal banquet with his guests. Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is expected to deliver a toast on behalf the guests, many of whom will leave Thailand the following day.

The banquet hosts monarchs from 13 nations -- Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Qatar, Swaziland and Sweden.

Other royalty will come from Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Bhutan, Denmark, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Spain, Tonga and the United Arab Emirates.

The anniversary celebrations have brought a lull to a bout of political turmoil in Thailand that has seen the prime minister step aside -- only to take back his duties -- in recent weeks.

As the younger brother in his family, few people during his childhood expected Bhumibol would take the throne. But when he was only 18, his brother died mysteriously on June 9, 1946, and he was named king the same day.

After his ascension to the throne, he went to Switzerland to study and was not formally crowned until four years later in May 1950, when he received the official royal name Rama the Ninth. His full name means "Strength of the Land -- Incomparable Power".

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Biography of
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej
His Majesty the King was born on Monday the 5th of December 1927, at Mount Auburn Hospital, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A., being the third and youngest child of Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Mahidol of Songkla.

His Majesty attended the Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande, Chailly sur Lausanne. Later on he moved to the Gymnase Classique Cantonal of Lausanne from where he received his Bachelier s lettres diploma. He then chose to enter Lausanne University to study science, but the sudden death of his elder brother, King Ananda Mahidol, in Bangkok on the 9th of June, 1946, changed the course of his life completely, for the Law of Succession bestowed on him the arduous but challenging function of the Thai Crown. The Government on behalf of the people came to ask the Princess Mother for her other son to be their King. As he had not finished his education, His Majesty decided to go back to Switzerland for another period of study, but this time in the subject of Political Science and Law in order to equip himself with the proper knowledge for government.

Following the completion of his education in Switzerland in the early 1950s, His Majesty returned home to Thailand. In the years following, he began what has become his way of life - traveling throughout the year to the provinces and rural areas of the kingdom to visit his people, talk to them and, perhaps even more important, listen to them. He learns first hand of their needs and their problems and then sets about trying to find a way of giving immediate help; later these problems are studied in depth to find a permanent solution or way of assistance.

Activities of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej


FOREIGN AFFAIRS
As Foreign relations are always conducted on Head-of-Stale level, His Majesty exercises to the full his prerogative in dispatching and receiving envoys to and from friendly nations. These formal functions are, however, conducted by him with the most personal touch. He anoints each Thai Ambassador in the fare-well audience and gives appropriate words of advice. Foreign envoys accredited to the Thai Court are received in both formal and informal audience, in the latter of which close personal bonds are formed, leading to smoother and more sympathetic co-operation. The personal touch is extended to areas of foreign relations outside the diplomatic circle, for His Majesty also constantly receives in audience various important and interesting foreign figures who pass by our country or have come in to co-operate with the Thai authorities in some way. The list of guests ranges from Foreign Royalty and Dignitaries through representatives of all fields of life.

Most important and most beneficial of all. Their Majesties have assiduously forged personal links with Heads of States and the peoples of foreign friendly countries by paying and receiving State and Official Visits to and from various countries all around the World. By short trips to one or two countries or an extended tour such as the one to The United States of America and Europe in 1960, Their Majesties have visited over 25 countries in Asia, Australasia, Europe and America and have received visits from a similar number of Heads of States. Study of the details of these exchanges would show foreign relations conducted at their best, for they have been arranged not only to bind the Heads of State in close bonds of personal friendship but to afford opportunities for friendly acquaintances of government officials as well as to create better knowledge and understanding between the two peoples. Naturally, the greatest assets which have made these exchanges of Visits so successful have been the graceful charms and total interests which both Their Majesties have always displayed in all aspects throughout the period of each stay however demanding the programme may be.


HEALTH
Apart from livelihood, Health is obviously another main concern in the welfare of any people. Health, for that reason, is also another main and close concern of His Majesty, especially as his Royal father, as already mentioned, is regarded as the Father of the modern Thai Medical Profession. His Majesty's activities range far and wide into many spheres and many areas of Health, staring with the physical contribution through attendances at Meetings of medical personnel or on medical matters such as the graduation and other ceremonies of medical students where he always gives appropriate words of advice and raises appropriate problems such as the growing brain drain of medical graduater to foreign countries and the reverse lack of medical personnel in provincial areas. He has personally observed this latter problem during his frequent trips to those areas and especially to the remote and border districts where even rudimentary facilities of health are sometimes lacking. Since a long time, therefore, he has set up his personal medical units always to accompany him on these trips and to stay for quite a while to tend to the maladies of the people some of whom see a doctor or a dentist for the very first time on such an occasion. For those villagers who need surgery or prolonged care His Majesty not only shoulders the cost of such operations or treatment in provincial hospitals or hospitals in the capital city of Bangkok but also pays for all the necessary expenses which might be incurred during the transportaion of patients, hospital fees and miscaellaneous fees such as household expenses during the hospitalization of the family's bread-winner. During the extended tours to visit people in rural and remote areas, His Majesty has instructed that clinics be established at the entrances to the grounds of the Royal Residences which are open to all at no cost and are staffed by His Majesty's Personal Physician, doctors and nurses attached to the Royal Medical Division as well as volunteer doctors from the Medical Departments of the various Armed Forces and medical personnel attached to the Ministry of Public Health serving in the region. Experienced surgeons of The Royal College of Surgeons also volunteer their services and perform surgery in the provincial hospitals upon the patients under expenses to the Privy Purse at the barest minimum,

His Majesty's work in the field of health services for the rural populace is well supplemented by the special efforts of his equally dedicated Royal mother who, in spite of her advanced age, still spends half her time each year on trips to remote are as accompanied by a similar sort of personal medical team while other teams under her sponsorship are comprised medical personnel who have access to planes and helicopters for the treatment of urgent cases. His Majesty also very much encourages the work of the mobile medical units formed by the Government and has personally presented a few fully-equipped vehicles for such purpose to the Government, one of these units being in the form of boat so that people who live only by canals and rivers could also be reached.

As in other fields, His Majesty's main approach has been to seek out the trouble spots try to provide or instigate suitable remedies. This approach could obviously find plenty of results in the medical area. Her Majesty the Queen being also the President of the Thai Red Cross, the two of them could identify the medical needs all the time and in all places, resulting in successive wards and laboratories being built through their in various hospitals both in Bangkok and in outlying areas. In a more extensive manner, Their Majesties have been responsible for establishing all sorts of Funds and Foundations to assist in the specialized treatment and research into the causes of various illnesses especially those of an epidemic or endemic nature in Thailand. Cholera, for example, is being combatted through a Fund set up by His Majesty in 1959 originally for the relief of families stricken in an epidemic of that year and the manufacture of medicine, but now extended to be used for the research and even the supply of research equipment to find the best and most effective way of preventing and eliminating the disease. Poliomyelitis was also epidemic in Thailand in 1953 and His Majesty set up another Fund to form fully-equipped wards for polio victims together with equipment for long-termed rehabilitation of the victims. Tuberculosis also used to be the scourge of the Thai nation, but with another Fund set up by His Majesty to help in producing B.C.G. vaccine, the disease has now been brought under effective control. Perhaps the most typical of all is the now famous Foundation for the relief of leprosy called the 'Rajaprachasamasai' meaning 'Mutual Support between King and people'. Leprosy is, of course, a generally detestable disease and its victims have tended to be shut away out of sight and out of mind of ordinary people. His Majesty, however, has chosen to single out this dreaded disease for his special concern and set an example by personally allocating an amount of money for the building and equipping of a research and relief station in Phrapradaeng District near Bangkok in 1960. With the sum left over from the building, he gave permission for it to be set up as a Fund for the specific purpose of research into the cure of the disease and general care of the victims. The example of His Majesty inspired many people to follow suit and the Fund rapidly grew to a large amount which merited being turned into an effective Foundation. Impressed by the large and instant public support for his original idea, His Majesty thus dubbed the Foundation with the name indicated above. It has now grown to be a model Foundation in its continued support and the effective result turned out from the shrewd use of the money donated.