33 Facts About Mongkut

Mongkut was the fourth king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IV.

The reign of Mongkut was marked by significant modernization initiatives and diplomatic engagements, which played pivotal roles in shaping Thailand's trajectory towards progress and international relations.

Mongkut was known for appointing his younger brother, Prince Chutamani, as Second King, crowned in 1851 as King Pinklao.

Mongkut told the country that Pinklao should be respected with equal honor to himself.

Mongkut is known in the West primarily through the lens of the 1951 musical The King and I and its 1956 film adaptation.

Mongkut was the second son of Prince Itsarasunthon, son of Phutthayotfa Chulalok, the first Chakri king of Siam and Princess Bunrot.

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

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

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.

Mongkut eventually came to power in 1851, as did his colleagues who had the same progressive mission.

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

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.

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

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.

So, Mongkut then crowned his brother as King Pinklao, the second king.

Mongkut raised his supporter Dit Bunnag to Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Prayurawongse and made him his regent kingdom-wide.

Mongkut appointed Dit Bunnag's brother, Tat Bunnag, as Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Pichaiyat, as his regent in Bangkok.

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

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

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.

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

However, Mongkut did not abandon the traditional culture of Siam.

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

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

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

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

In contrast to the previous king, Nangklao, Mongkut did not see the importance of sending envoys to the Qing dynasty court, as the mission symbolised Siam's subjection to the Qing emperors and because the Qing dynasty was then not so powerful as it had once been, as it was itself threatened by Western powers.

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

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.

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

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.

The asteroid 151834 Mongkut is named in honour of the King and his contributions to astronomy and the modernization of Siam.

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.