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Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, King of Siam from 1851 to 1868, asrepresentedinawoodcutdrawnfromaphoto- graph of the King in full royal regalia. This woodcut appeared during the King's lifetime in Le Royaume de Siam by Amedee Grehan (2d ed.; Paris, 1868). Thepresent reproduction isfrom thethirdedition (Paris, 1869). (PhotographfromtheLibraryof MONGKUT,theKingofSiam ABBOT LOW MOFFAT CornellPaper&acfis CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA, NEW YORK 1961 byCornellUniversity CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Firstpublished1961 Secondprinting1962 Thirdprinting1962 Firstprinting,CornellPaperbacks,1968 Preparedundertheauspices oftheThailandProject SoutheastAsia Program Cornell University LibraryofCongressCatalogCard Number: 61-16666 PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA BYVALLEYOFFSET,INC. TO MY FRIENDS MomRajawongseSentPramoj AND MomRajawongseKukritPramoj IN GRATITUDE FOR PRESENTING ME TO THEIR GREAT-UNCLE KingMongkut CITY (MO.) Preface THERE are several minions of Americans and Europeans who feel almost personally acquainted with one of Asia's great statesmen, yet they do not know that he was a great statesman, and indeed few even know his name. They know him as the King of Siam so whimsically presented in The King and I by Yul Brynner. They know him as the King of Siam so handsomely portrayed inAnna and the King of Siam by Rex Harrison. They know him as the King of Siam, the cruel and capricious despot of MargaretLandon's AnnaandtheKing ofSiam. Theyknow him as the King of Siam in Anna Leonowens' books The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem (recently reprinted under the title Siamese Harem Life), fromwhichtheothers are derived. Each new presentation has naturally moved farther v viii Preface away from a likeness of the real king as it was designed to appeal to a new and more distant audience. Even Anna Leonowens' books are the beneficiaries of a gifted imagina- tion especially as they related to the King and Ms personal life. Butthen,itwasbyherlecturing andherbooks thatshe supported herself and her family after she left Bangkok. It obviously proved lucrative to thrill her Victorian audiences with gruesome tales of eastern harem life. Anna's books shocked the Siamese Court, and it is said thatthegovernmenttried tobuy up all copies. When three- quartersofacenturylaterMargaretLandonrewroteAnna's two books and Anna and the King of Siam became a best seller, many Siamese were highly indignant. Old tales told by Anna, which they knew to be fictional, were being re- peated to a new generation of admiring readers as appar- entlytrue stories. The subsequentversions, in their opinion, offeredevengreaterdistortionsinportrayingKingMongkut. But deeper than any specific complaint was the feeling that these books andplays havepresentedto theworld a carica- ture of one of their country's great men, and no country, bigorlittle, likes theworldtolaugh no matterhow gentle and friendly the laughter at one of its great men. King Mongkut, King of Siam from 1851 to 1868, was in fact one of the great Asians of the nineteenth century. For seventeenyears he steeredhis countrythrough the con- flicting pressures and territorial ambitions of France and England andsetthe coursethatpreservedtheindependence ofhis country the only country in SoutheastAsia never to havefallen underEuropean domination. Always therewere evident in his life a deeply religious spirit that compre- hended and believed in tolerance, an intellectual curiosity that caused a never-ceasing search for knowledge, and an unshakable determination to serve the Siamese In people. Preface ix him surged the turmoil arising from the sudden impact of western civilization on an eastern civilization. It was this turmoil within him which caused those inconsistencies and incongruities that made him so striking and fascinating a personality.Yetthroughallhisactionsthereisclearlyvisible the guidingpurpose of his reign: the independence of Siam must be preserved. He realized that this required not only careful diplomatic action abroad but also a modernizing of thecountryathome.Evenasonesmilesathisfoiblesandhis littleweaknesses especially athis English, ofwhichhewas so proud the objectives underlying apparent trivia can be understood, whetherin askingQueenVictoriafor a decora- tion (as part of his campaign to emphasize the sovereignty of Siam) or in admonishing his people on the "inelegance" ofthrowing dead animals inthe canals ofBangkok (aspart of his campaignto adjusthis people to the new and strange western ideas). Judged against his background and his times, he towers intellectually and morally over his con- temporaries, not only in Siam but throughout Southeast Asia. This little book is not intended as a refutation of any of Anna's stories.* As the Baltimore Evening Sun recently philosophized about them, "When truth gives fiction as much as one day's start, oftentimes, it isnever able to catch up." * Moreover, most people do not consider whether those tales are literal history; nor, for that matter, do they care. They have enjoyed the books or the pictures or the play as light and charming anecdotes or delightful theater. That pleasure, however, need not preclude one from enjoy- ing the remarkable true story of King Mongkut and know- ingwhattheKingofSiamwaslikeinreallife. I have not tried to prepare a conventional biography of *For comments on Anna as historian, see Appendix IV. x Preface King Mongkut or a history of Ms reign. I have, rather, tried to sketch the man in his many facets, furnishing a factual outline but applying the color from his own writings, through which his personality and character shine so clearly, and from other contemporary sources. Some of his letters written in English have been published in the Journal of the Siam Society or have been quoted in books. In 1948 two of his gifted great-nephews, who felt that the western world should know something of the real King Mongkut, gathered together a substantial number of his letters, decrees, judgments, and state papers in the original English or in charming translations which they made from the original Siamese. M. R. Seni Pramoj was the Free Thai minister in Washington during the war and first post- war prime minister of Siam. He is today a leading lawyer in Bangkok. His brother, M. R. Kukrit Pramoj, a former member of Parliament, is a well-known newspaper editor andauthor. Withthe^se writings they included a brief sketch of King Mongkufs life in a manuscript entitled "The King of Siam Speaks." Most of the translations I have used are taken, with their permission, for which I am very grateful, from that manuscript. They appear here for the first time in English, except for a few of the decrees which were reproduced in an article by M. R. Seni Pramoj, "King Mongkut as a Legislator," in the Journal of the Siam So- ciety in January, 1950. I haveinserted additional paragraphing and punctuation marks where these will make reading the translations from the- Siamese easier, and I have corrected obvious misprints or errors, whether in manuscript or in print. I have not, however, made changes especially not in King Mongkut's spelling or grammar in letters written originally in Eng- lish; nor have I changed the spelling of names as they ap- Preface xi pearindifferentplaces. Thetransliteration ofSiamesewords and names has always presented difficulties. As a result, the same names appear in the quotations in this book with varying spellings, but I am sure that readers will realize that those that look alike are in fact the same, as, Chau, Chao; Phya, Phraya; Suriwongse, Suriyawongse; Luang, Hluang. Etiquette requires that a man's title or rank always precedehis name in Siamese. As this book is designed for western readers, I trust that any Thai who may read it will recognize that no disrespect is intended by my fol- lowingwesterncustom andreferringto theSiameseKingby hiswestern name asMongkut (heis scarcely knownbythat name in Thailand), just as I make reference to the British QueenasVictoriaandtotheAmericanPresidentasLincoln. I make no apology for quoting so copiously from King Mongkut's writings. Like the Pramojs, I have become con- vinced that no one could depict King Mongkut so well andIthinktherightwordis "endearingly" asKingMong- kut himself. The King was photographed a number of times, and he often sent pictures of himself as presents to other heads of state. The daguerreotype he sent President Pierce was at one time in the Smithsonian Institution but cannot now be found. The Smithsonian has, however, a photograph, made many years ago in Philadelphia, which it believes to be of that daguerreotype. It is reproduced in this book. The daguerreotype which King Mongkut had taken with his beloved daughter and forwarded to Washington for President Buchanan arrived when Lincoln was president. Lincoln had it placed in the National Archives, where it now reposes. Unfortunately, over the years the picture has deteriorated and is not now suitable for reproduction. Efforts to locate the daguerreotype, sent to Queen Vic-