2. King
• His Majesty King Mongkut was born on Thursday
the 18th of October 1804.
• Prince Mongkut was five years old when his father
succeeded to the Throne in 1809.
• When His Royal Highness Prince Mongkut became
King, he was generally known in Siam as "Phra
Chom Klao", but foreigners always called him
Mongkut.
• Mongkut means "crown".
3. King
• His Majesty King Mongkut was greatly interested in
astronomy.
• He correctly calculated the time and place of a total
eclipse of the sun, which occurred on August 18,
1868, and pinpointed a remote village in Prachuab
Khiri Khan, on the west coast of the Gulf of Siam, as
the place where it could be clearly seen.
4. King
• Becoming abbott of a monastery in Bangkok,
Mongkut developed a lively home for
intellectual discourse in the 1830s and 1840s,
when he gained adherents to his new teachings
and invited American and French missionaries
to teach Western languages, arts, and sciences.
• His brother monks ultimately were to found the
modernist Dhammayutta sect, a major force in
the life of modern Thailand.
Abbott- Priest
5. King
• Upon consolidating their power the liberals
signified their willingness to come to terms with
Western demands and signed treaties, beginning
with Britain in 1855, which removed all barriers
to trade and established extra-territoriality for
European subjects in Siam.
• Mongkut and Suriyawong, who became his chief
minister, set a pattern of accommodation to the
West which came to assure Siam's survival as an
independent state through the 19th-century
thrust of European imperialism.
6. King
• Described by European envoys as thin and
austere, Mongkut was extraordinarily lively,
excited by ideas, and colorfully expressive in
English. Though the conservatism of his nobles
precluded fundamental reforms, he educated his
sons to understand the value of national
independence and the necessity for reform,
which alone could ensure survival. He died on
Oct. 1, 1868, and was succeeded by his son,
Prince Chulalongkorn.
