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'The King of Thailand in World Focus'
'The King of Thailand in World Focus'
A new, expanded edition of the book published by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand brings the story up to date
USNISA SUKHSVASTI
Among the many coffee table books published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne in June 2006 and His Majesty's 80th birthday in December this year, one stands out from the rest for its unique perspective and presentation - The King of Thailand in World Focus, published by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT).
The 260 page book, which will have its official launch at a charity dinner at The Oriental on August 23, is a new edition of a book originally published in 1987 to mark His Majesty's 60th birthday and his becoming, in the following year, the longest reigning monarch in Thai history. The book comprises exclusively of articles that have been previously published in newspapers and magazines. Although long out of print, it is highly valued as a book that offers a foreign perspective on almost 80 years of the King's life and achievements, and that also documents the historic events that unfolded during his lifetime and his reign.
The book also marks the 50th anniversary of the FCCT in 2006, and is therefore a perfect representation of the international media, a comprehensive record of events surrounding a monarchy that is still held in esteemed reverence and idolatry by the people of Thailand.
This perspective, as a result, provides a more objective, analytical and even more humanistic, approach to the King than anything that could appear in the Thai media, and thus gives the book its unique focus. It features the King in his varied personae: King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX: Great Strength of the Land, ninth king in the Chakri dynasty, Father of the Nation, peacemaker, Thailand's longest reigning monarch, the world's longest reigning living monarch, jazz composer, saxophonist, artist, inventor, patent holder, sailor, philanthropist, animal lover and expert in agriculture and irrigation.
Heading the editorial committee were a number of veteran Bangkok-based correspondents, many of whom were also involved in the first publication. These include editor-in-chief Denis Gray, bureau chief of the Associated Press, Dominic Faulder of Bureau Bangkok, Yvan van Outrive of Editions Didier Millet, photographer John Everingham, Owen Wrigley and the indomitable Rosemary Whitcraft whose coup for the first book was unearthing the birth certificate of His Majesty the King.
With a more streamlined editorial group than before, they expected the project to be simple and straightforward, with perhaps 20 per cent new material in addition to the existing text and pictures from the first book. That was to prove quite wrong.
With three researchers on the team, word was put out to all the news agencies, libraries, embassies, national archives and media organisations around the world, and from the hundreds of articles they received, one team had to screen the stories, and another the pictures.
"The ones to go in stood out immediately," said Faulder. "For some articles, we had to discuss their merits and some were factually wrong.
"Some of the stories had to be trimmed for repetition; we felt that each article should add something in its own right."
By the end of their research, they found that the new book had more than doubled in size, growing from 82 articles to 167, and from 187 photographs to 375.
Over 50 news organisations are represented in the book, and the articles range from 1946 up to the September coup in 2006.
One of the major differences in the production process of the two versions was the huge advances in technology over the past two decades.
"The first book was technologically light years ago," laughed Faulder. "Although Owen [Wrigley] had the master copy, we had nothing on computer."
The Internet is one of the most significant advances that helped the editorial team get its hands on elusive material.
"We received a photocopy of an article from a 1950 issue of Life magazine, which detailed the King's return from Switzerland. So we went on the Internet and ordered a copy of that issue, and soon an original copy of the magazine arrived, in pristine condition, complete with Gregory Peck on the cover!"
The article, "Young king with a horn", by John Stanton begins: "Whenever the spirit (or the muse) tempts him, the 22-year-old King of Siam summons six of his young amateur musician friends to the Lausanne, Switzerland, villa where he is living. These seven young men have formed what is probably the most intricately gadgeted orchestra in Europe. Lights are hung on the drums and pianos. There is electrical resonance equipment for every instrument that will take it. Underneath the orchestra is a tangled mass of wires and control boxes. When the boys really get the beat going the King has himself a time. He moves all over the orchestra. He beats out a piano bass. He tootles on his horn, his clarinet, his saxophone. Then he takes up his trumpet, aims it at the ceiling and really lets go. Going up and up the scale, he leans back, back until His Majesty falls right out of his chair, still holding the high note. On a good night this goes on until dawn, disturbing the sleep of neighbours who hardly dare complain about the antics of the bespectacled young man who is, after all, Somdet Phra Chao Yu Hua Phumophon Aduldet, Ninth Monarch of the Chakri Dynasty."
While the first book put more emphasis on pictures, the new one contains many more articles. Only one picture covers more than one page - an image of Bangkok residents crowding the bank of the Chao Phraya River to catch a glimpse of the young King and his fiance'e as they cruise upriver. There is also a computer generated montage of the royal barge procession winding its way down the Chao Phraya River.
As in the previous book, there are nine chapters, no doubt echoing the fact that the King is Rama IX. The first seven chapters follow the same headings as before: "Youth (1927-1950)", "Coronation Year (1950)", "Formative Decades (1951-1974)", "The Royals Abroad", "Years of Turbulence", "Working Royals" and "Renaissance Man". Although most of these chapters include new material, the fifth chapter - "Years of Turbulence" - has been expanded most in the revision. Previously ending with a 1982 article on the dynasty's second centenary, the chapter now covers stories on unrest, coups, interventions and insurgency up to 2006.
His reign has by no means been anything like a fairy-tale, as everyone well knows. "The dramatic royal intervention in May 1992 to end political chaos and bloodshed is still dramatically etched on the world's collective imagination," reads an FCCT release for the book. "The tense political stand-off of 2006, when Thai politicians once again grappled with the fine print of constitutional democracy, ended in September with a bloodless military putsch."
The last two chapters have been rejigged, with a new heading "Milestones" to replace "The Fifth Cycle (1987)", covering the celebrations of the King's 60th birthday, events in the longest reign and jubilees.
Chapter nine, "Royal Asides", offers an off-beat look at His Majesty the King, and includes such articles as "For dogged devotion to etiquette, a kingly tribute", from the New York Times on the King and his adopted stray dog, known affectionately to the public as Khun Thongdaeng, "A birthday present fit for a Queen", from The Independent, on the film Suriyothai, and even a story on the King's car that runs on palm oil.
Appendices include a House of Chakri genealogy chart, also reproduced as a separate four page fold out, that has been revised and is possibly the most accurate to date.
A chronology of the life and times of King Bhumibol Adulyadej also lists all of the country's prime ministers since 1932. A new section called "The King and Us" is a virtual "rogues gallery" of the movers and shakers in the international media.
The book costs 1,450 baht, and will be available at all branches of Asia Books, B2S, Bookazine and Kinokuniya, from August 24. Sixty per cent of the proceeds from sales of the book will go to His Majesty the King's charities, the remainder to the FCCT's educational funds.
Bangkok Post
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