Guest Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 I am always amazed at the amount of information people have on this board. I was wondering what King 5 did that make him so great? This post is only about GOOD THINGS ABOUT HIM. We all know the rules of the board prohibit any slander towards the kingdom monarchy. Did he shake hands on border agreements with the Chinese?, promote freedom?, etc? What is the Thai history? I am sure people on this board know educated Thai people who know the history........ Thanks, Rug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 he is known for saving the country from colonialization. in opposite to most other countries in the region, thailand was never a colony. of course also many other contributions for the development of this country. he also reigned during quite a long period Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Hello, First his majesty's deeds were almost too long to list: Most Thais remember him for (including me) the emancipation of slavery, if not, most of Thais (could include my ancesters) would still be slaves. No bloodshed, took him over 20 years to do it. His father the King Rama the 4th wanted to free the slaves very much but did not live long enough to do it, this King actually wrote a letter to President Licoln on his intent to get rid of salvery in Thailand. The other important thing was what he did in saving Thailand from being colonized. He included Chiangmai with then Siam (married a princess from Chiangmai was one of the action), educated the Northern people and convinced the then king of Chiangmai to be with Siam instead of Burma. Also, he had the Chula Univ. built, Sirirat hospital built, other grade school, one, if my memory serves me correctly, is Suan Kulap HS. His sole purpose was, as written, "To let all people, poor or rich to have chances on education. The same purpose for the hospital was "So people, all people can have access to health care. Many other wonderful things such as sending his children and other young personnel to be educated abroad on the fields that Thailand needed. Only a few things I could write now, others, I need to do research and pick my old brains, hard getting old!!! Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 When we see the shape of the countries that were colonized around Thailand (save Malaysia, but it was not a quite a country then, was it?), we can appreciate the accomplishments of the Chakri dynasty. Almost every king gave a great contribution to the Kingdom, to this day. much because they identified themselves with the nation, or rather, saw Thailand as a nation, while their neighbours were still thinking in medieval terms. If Chulalongkorn had not projected Siam as a sovereign State to the rest of the world, by traveling to India, and Europe, reforming the government, civic laws, modernizing and unifying the State along european lines (laws, and major ministries were mostly upcoded by european advisers), in short, if he had not been a man in sync with his times, Thailand could have stayed partitionned and up for grab. He also abhorred war as a good buddhist, IMO, and knew there would no happy ending in fighting the french heroically, so he ceded territories to them. His genius was to foresee that these humiliations at the hand of the french would pay extra dividends in making Siam a peaceful nation master of its destiny. Not just slaves, but women were also emancipated and given rights they had not before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Apparently he didn't eat beef. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2004 Report Share Posted July 4, 2004 Thanks to the people that responded. I did a web search on "King Chulalongkorn" and was able to learn more. Just knowing his name helps a lot. My take/summery is that King Chulalongkorn's accomplishments were that he abolished slavery very fast, made sure that Chaig Mai did not go to Burma, gave the French land concessions but retained Siam, and that he was a real dipolmat who was in touch with other western diplimats and western thinking (like getting rid of slavery, building a union, and making education of paramount importance) He also built many schools and educated and prepared the 77 children he fathered with with the skills and education to take over the monarchy. Rug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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