HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej....

HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej

The current Thai monarch, the much-beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej (King Rama IX of the Chakri Dynasty) has reigned in Thailand for over 60 years, the longest of any Thai ruler. In fact, he is now the longest reigning monarch in the world. King Bhumibol was born in 1927 in Cambridge Massachusetts, where his father studied medicine at Harvard University. The Thai people have a deep and abiding reverence for their royal family. This immense popularity is a reflection of His Majesty's keen interest in his people's welfare. The King and his Queen, Queen Sirikit, have devoted a great deal of time and effort implementing public work projects, with particular focus on the under priviliged. As a constitutional monarch, the king holds powers similar to those of the Queen of England. Though he maintains neutrality in times of crisis, the king of Thailand has proved time and again to be a reliable stabilising force for the Thai people.

Royal rain-making project

In November of 1955 Northeast Thailand was in the grip of one of its periodic droughts. As is his custom in times of crisis, his majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej travelled to support his subjects in their time of need. The king recognised that Thailand needed some control over its climate, and he resolved to find a way to make it rain. Although wet cats and rockets were just about the only solution on offer at the time (there is a rain-making ritual in the north of Thailand whereby a wet cat is paraded through the village in a wicker basket, and an annual rocket festival in which rockets are fired in an attempt to shock the clouds into making rain) the King was not discouraged. A Thai inventor was assigned to investigate existing technology for weather modification and how it could be applied to conditions in Thailand. He soon discovered that current techniques were not really succesful, and almost no work had been done in tropical regions. For over a decade, under the King's guidance, he continued his experiments. King Bhumibol made suggestions concerning the importance of studying weather patterns, ways to increase surface humidity and stressed the need for detailed and accurate records of experiments. By 1972, to the amazement of a group of government representatives from Singapore, a team was able to produce a significant amount of rain in the Kaeng Krachan resevoir within five hours of seeding the clouds with a chemical mixture. In 1974 another devastating drought affected large parts of Thailand and the Royal rain-making team faced its first real test. The ongoing operation was directed by the Thailand King himself. To the relief of farmers this concentrated offensive brought rain to the fields just in time to save the harvest. Doubters were silenced and ever since Royal rain-making has been an integral part of Thailand's agricultural landscape. Under the Royal Rain-making Research and Development Institute the methods of rain-making have since been fine tuned to determine the appropriate mixture of chemicals and timing of the cloud seeding. These methods have gone considerably further than methods used in many other countries, establishing Thailand as a world leader in the science of weather modification. November 14 is now celebrated in Thailand as Royal Rain-making Day in memory of the moment when His Majesty the King first had the inspiration to banish the spectre of drought from his kingdom.

The Royal Stream

Near Haad Sadet on the east coast of Koh Phangan island is a favourite bathing spot of Thailand's Kings. The waterfalls are collectively known as the 'Royal Stream'. There are inscriptions left on granite boulders by various Thai kings making it is an important point of local history to Koh Phangan.