Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand
Bhumibol Adulyadej, the king of Thailand. The current king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the longest-reigning monarch in the world today, as well as Thailand's longest-reigning king ever. The beloved king's common name is pronounced "POO- mee-pohn uh-DOON-ja-deht"; his throne name is Rama IX. Early Life: Born a second son, and with his birth taking place outside of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej was never meant to rule. His reign came about through a mysterious act of violence. Since then, the King has been a calm presence at the center of Thailand's stormy political life. On December 5, 1927, a Thai princess gave birth to a son named Bhumibol Adulyadej ("Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power") in a Cambridge, Massachusetts hospital. The family was in the United States because the child's father, Prince Mahidol, Mysterious Succession: was studying for a Public Health certificate at On June 9, 1946, King Ananda Mahidol died Harvard University. His mother studied in his palace bedroom of a single gunshot nursing at Simmons College. The boy was wound to the head. It was never conclusively the second son for Prince Mahidol and proven whether his death was murder, Princess Srinagarindra. accident or suicide, although two royal pages When Bhumibol was a year old, his family and the king's personal secretary were returned to Thailand, where his father took convicted and executed for assassinating up an intership in a hospital in Chiang Mai. him. Prince Mahidol was in poor health, though, 18-year-old Prince Bhumibol had gone in to and died of kidney and liver failure in his brother's room about 20 minutes before September of 1929.
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