/ARTS WEEKLY/THAILAND: Reverence for the King, Monarchy Peaks in December

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Dec 3 2002 (IPS) - Each December, Thailand revels in a spectacle of colour and pageantry to affirm its reverence for the country’s monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

In the weeks and days ahead of the king’s birthday on Dec. 5, giant pictures of the bespectacled King Bhumibol are erected along streets, shrines with his photograph set up in public and private buildings and yellow flags bearing the royal seal adorn the entrance to homes.

In addition, buildings are festooned with necklaces of small lights and hotels display their respect by having the sides of their buildings lit up with the message, ”Long Live the King.” Television advertisements pay tribute to him as ‘Thailand’s Guiding Light’.

But this year, the countdown to this show of reverence has received an added boost through the release last Tuesday of a book authored by King Bhumibol about his favourite pet dog, ‘Tongdaeng’ (copper in Thai, for the colour of the coat of local-breed canine).

Some local newspapers have dedicated half of their front page to excerpts of the 84-page book or setting aside a full page in an inside section for accounts of the ‘Biography of a Pet Dog: The Story of Tongdaeng’.

They highlighted passages from the book where the king praises Tongdaeng for being a grateful and respectful dog, in addition to being intelligent, good mannered and possessing remarkable skills.

King Bhumibol, writing in the third person, delivers such lines: ”Other dogs, even her own children, would show their delight when they meet the King, by jumping onto his lap and lick his face. Tongdaeng would never do that. She always stays lower than him.”

”Even when he pulls her to embrace her,” the king continues, ”Tongdaeng would quickly crouch on the floor, her ears down in a respectful manner, as if saying ‘I dare not; it’s not proper’. To show respect and loyalty, she would lick the King’s hand heartily and continuously.”

All 100,000 copies of the book were sold out in a few hours after its release, making the king the author of a bestseller.

Atchara Limtrakul, a Thai businesswoman, told ‘The Nation’, an English-language daily, that the king’s intention in writing the book was to ”present Tongdaeng as a good example of the Buddhist teaching of gratitude people must have for the people who raise them”.

This response is in step with the awe that often accompanies the deeds of King Bhumibol, who has been on the throne since 1946 and is, consequently, the world’s longest reigning monarch.

Thais regard the king as a genius at jazz music, a highly talented photographer, the best adviser the country has on agriculture, a dedicated humanist and a visionary in a host of other fields of life. In a society that puts a premium on respect for those senior to them, they also follow many rituals that accompany the monarchy today, including going down on their knees in the king’s presence or lying prostrate on the floor with face turned upward in case they have to converse with a seated monarch.

This high regard draws from the view by many of the 74-year-old king as Thailand’s only institution of stability and order in contemporary times in this constitutional monarchy, where the affairs of government are run by the elected administration and prime minister.

During the monarch’s 56 years on the throne, King Bhumibol has witnessed 20 prime ministers serve the country, seen 16 new constitutions written, and watched 17 coups being staged.

King Bhumibol was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The western-educated king is the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty, which spans 220 years. It was this dynasty that established Bangkok as the Thai capital.

Because of their reverence for the king and the institution, Thais do not tolerate denigration of his stature, even overseas.

Midway this year, the Thai government along with the country’s diplomats and citizens in the United States mounted a protest campaign against the owner of the bar in Philadelphia for portraying King Bhumibol as an urban hipster in a spoof advertisement for the restaurant.

Some enraged Thai officials even considered invoking Thailand’s ‘lese majeste’ laws against the U.S. bar owner for defaming the monarchy, according to local media reports. Under these laws, which have rarely been enforced in recent years, a person accused of criticising the Thai monarchy could be punished with a 15-year jail sentence.

Prior to that, the ‘Bangkok Post’ publishing company, the local distributor of the Britain’s ‘The Economist’ news magazine, stopped the sale and circulation of its March issue for an article that could have been interpreted as a violation of the ‘lese majeste’ laws. It touched on the very sensitive issue of succession.

On that occasion, Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor of the English-language ‘Post’, said that the particular edition of ‘The Economist’ would not be distributed because the company felt that ”certain portions of the report referring to the monarchy were inappropriate”.

There are a range of other topics too that Thailand’s otherwise feisty press avoid out of respect for the institution of the monarchy and as upholders of the ‘lese majeste’ law.

Chapter two of the country’s constitution says,”The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated.”

The pomp and celebrations underway bring this principle out in a riot of colour and reverence, before and after the king’s birthday on Dec. 5 – also a national holiday.