Thailand forever altered as King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies
After seven decades, the longest-serving monarch in the world has died. Southeast Asia Globe looks back at King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s reign. Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the longest-reigning monarch in the world and the ninth ruler in the unbroken Chakri dynasty, is dead. A reign that began at the age of 18 more than 70 years ago, after his older brother and predecessor King Ananda Mahidol was found shot through the head in Bangkok’s Grand Palace, has ended today in the capital’s Siriraj Hospital, according to a palace statement. Bhumibol has spent long periods cloistered from the public eye through years of declining health. Enormously beloved and regarded as semi-divine by his people, Bhumibol – also known as Rama IX – was only four years old when the absolute monarchy of Siam was overthrown and the country’s first constitution established. Since his accession just 14 years later, Bhumibol has presided over a country that has been torn apart by a bloody cycle of military coups, fierce demonstrations and brief bouts of uneasy truce. The king’s role in this maelstrom of coup and counter-coup remains a source of bitter controversy, with the right hand of Rama alternately seen as a steady hand safeguarding the nation’s people and an iron grip keeping them down.
