A Democratic King
Despite the abundant proofs that vajiravudh was fully aware of his absolute powers as a siamese monarch and was anxious, in fact, to focus more attention on the monarchy than ever in order to build national unity, the image of him among the Thai is that he was a democratic king. One author entitles a chapter on vajiravudh inThe Libera others refer to him variously as an expert in democracy a true believer in the principles of democracy in its true sense, and "a very democratic king In part this image of vajiravudh may have derived from his efforts to endear himself to his people, to move among them more freely than was customary, and to include the public in various festivals. From the very start of the reign, elements of the general population were included for the first time in such events as the cremation rites for chulalongkorn and the coronation ceremonies for vajiravudh 103 There were, of course, countless other official ceremonies that had to be performed, age-old obligations ofa monarch who was supposed to have inherent magic powers. The ceremonies were traditionally performed by the king for the public, but not with the public, and it would appear that udh performed many of them perfunctorily. But not all of them. One such ceremony was the royal kathin, the rite of presentation of robes to Buddhist monks. In 1913 the King, breaking custom, decided to go on an unofficial kathin object of a by boat to a small temple and soon found himself the A newspaper writer commented warm popular demonstration on the event as follows In their enthusiasm the people afloat hemmed the King's boat a round The officials would have liked to keep the distance a little bigger, but His Majesty enjoyed the unaccustomed nearness of the people. The Royal acknowledgement oft repeated, of the people's greetings, was one of the ways of fulfilment of the Coronation promise to extend his favour to all his people. The occasion does not arise often as regards the great bulk of the people, but this was one, and the opportunity was taken advantage of. Another impromptu kathin occurred a few days later. The King noted n his diary that while on a pleasure jaunt he happened on a rura kathin e was invited to take part, and he did-joining in on the t was delicious and prayers, the gift-giving, the noodle repast The unexpected success of these events led Vajira- play-watching vudh to try to repeat them, and "people's kathin" followed in 1914. 915, and 1916. The later affairs, however, lacked spontaneity, and one feels that the real desire of the King to come into closer rapport with his people was thwarted by the elaborate preparations of his courtiers to give him a good show, with safe official floats substituted for the lively enthusiasm of an unpredictable crowd Probably more important, however, in giving Vajiravudh the "democratic courtiers of image was his practice of surrounding himself with The Thai less than princely rank, with whom he spent much time rather definition of "democratic" here really means egalitarian levels than democratic in a political sense. Although the highest of government continued to be occupied by senior nobles and princes of elevated rank the relations between these nobles and princes and the King were not closel a fact that accounted for many of the charges of government inefficiency that were made against vajiravudh's reign. However the King's habits affected the administration, it is true that the guests at Vajiravudh's dinner parties his social companions, his neighbors at Dusit Thani, his most trusted wild Tigers, the actors in his dramas all came from a relatively small circle of mah (court pages) and others in the inner circle of the Ministry of the Palace. And these men represented various classes. Many were commoners. Some were of Chinese descent. Those whose ancestors were royal were of lower royal ranks. It was because of this choice of associates that Vajiravudh was awarded a reputation for favoring sycophants by those who criticized him and the name of democrat by those who admired him. In any case, it does not appear that the King chose his associates for political purposes; rather, he seemed simply to prefer to spend time with men of humble origin whom he treated with remarkable freedom and familiarity