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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2023
There is no need to harm you, however, because no matter what, you must disappear in time. Sooner or later, all the old things will be confined to museums, one after the other …
much time has elapsed already, and your world and mine are getting further apart. I’m the ghost that time has fashioned to scare those who live in the old world, to give nightmares to those who hold to the old ways of thinking, and nothing can comfort you, just as nothing can stop the march of time, which will produce more and more ghosts like me …
but there’s no way this can happen because the ghost is even more invulnerable than Achilles or Siegfried as he is protected by the shield of time … We’re worlds apart. Mine is the world of ordinary people.
Seinee Saowaphong, Pheesart (1957), translated into English by Marcel Barang, Ghosts (2006)In conclusion, as the ninth king regnant of the Chakri dynasty, HM King Bhumibol was extremely successful in constructing a neo-monarchy with extensive barami. However, according to Theravada Buddhist concepts, personal barami is untransferable. His successors must work to achieve it for themselves.
Just as HM King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), another successful absolute monarch whose barami vanished with him, HM King Vajiravudh, Rama VI (1910–25) and HM King Prajadhipok, Rama VII (1925–35) had to develop it on their own. Absolute monarchy ended in Siam in 1932, only twenty-two years after the death of King Rama V. King Rama IX’s successor will face the same problem of how to maintain, or adapt, the new monarchy to suit new contexts.
As mentioned before, in 1927, Prince Damrong, a chief minister and historian, gave a resoundingly influential lecture about the Thai people and their nation. At one point, the prince said, “The Thai people have three important virtues that sustain Siam to the present day: one, love of national independence; two, tolerance; and three, the power of assimilation.”
At the height of Anglo-French colonialism, Chulalongkorn’s Siam managed to survive external threats and remain semi-independent. During the Second World War, the new 1932 government of Thailand, the People’s Party or Khana Ratsadon, collaborated with the Japanese as well as the Allies with even-handed results.
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