23 Facts About King Mongkut

1.

King Mongkut was the fourth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama IV.

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2.

King Mongkut embraced Western innovations and initiated the modernization of his country, both in technology and culture—earning him the nickname "The Father of Science and Technology" in Siam.

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3.

King Mongkut was born in the Old Palace in 1804, where the first son had died shortly after birth in 1801.

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4.

In 1824, King Mongkut became a Buddhist monk, following a Siamese tradition that men aged 20 should become monks for a time.

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5.

King Mongkut travelled around the country as a monk and saw the relaxation of the rules of the Pali Canon among the Siamese monks he met, which he considered inappropriate.

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6.

Prince King Mongkut was supported by the pro-British Dis Bunnak who was the Samuha Kalahom, or Armed Force Department's president, and the most powerful noble during the reign of Rama III.

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7.

King Mongkut had the support of British merchants who feared the growing anti-Western sentiment of the previous monarch and saw the 'prince monk' Mongkut as the 'champion' of European influence among the royal elite.

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8.

King Mongkut took the name Phra Chom Klao, although foreigners continued to call him King Mongkut.

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9.

King Mongkut ordered the nobility to wear shirts while attending his court; this was to show that Siam was a "modern" nation from the Western point of view.

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10.

King Mongkut appointed Dis Bunnak's brother, Tat Bunnak, as Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Pichaiyat, as his regent in Bangkok.

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11.

King Mongkut then married his half-grandniece, Mom Chao Rampoei Siriwongse, later Queen Debsirindra.

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12.

King Mongkut sent Siamese troops northwards but the armies were turned aside by the mountainous highlands.

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13.

King Mongkut claimed that he already knew of the round state of earth 15 years before the arrival of American missionaries, but the debate about Earth's shape remained an issue for Siamese intellectuals throughout the 1800s.

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14.

King Mongkut hired Western mercenaries to train Siamese troops in Western style.

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15.

King Mongkut began the Magha Puja festival in the full moon of the third lunar month, to celebrate Buddha's announcement of his main principles.

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16.

King Mongkut instigated the recompilation of Tripitaka in Siam according to Theravada traditions.

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17.

King Mongkut released a large number of royal concubines to find their own husbands, in contrast to how his story has been dramatized.

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18.

King Mongkut banned forced marriages of all kinds and the selling of one's wife to pay off a debt.

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19.

King Mongkut's reign saw immense commercial activities in Siam for the first time, which led to the introduction of coinage in 1860.

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20.

Contrary to popular belief, King Mongkut did not offer a herd of war elephants to the US president Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War for use against the Confederacy.

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21.

King Mongkut did offer to send some domesticated elephants to US president James Buchanan, to use as beasts of burden and means of transportation.

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22.

The President merely politely declined to accept King Mongkut's proposal, explaining to the King that the American climate might not be suitable for elephants and that American steam engines could be used as beasts of burden and means of transportation.

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23.

King Mongkut is one of the people with the most children in Thai history; he had 32 wives and concubines during his lifetime who produced at least 82 children, one of whom was Chulalongkorn, who married four of his half sisters.

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