Take the invention nicknamed the “monkey’s cheeks,” which he designed to address the perennial floods that Thailand experiences. His Majesty seeing as a child the way that monkeys would store chewed bananas in their cheeks so that they could eat them late, and built a system of small reservoirs that worked using a similar principle – storing excess water during heavy rains that could be used later for irrigation. The system of the “monkey’s cheeks” is still being used across Thailand today. Many of the King’s inventions fit this pattern – merging conservation with human development. He was decades ahead of the curve in recognizing that what was environmentally sustainable was crucial to the long term health of communities.
Let me conclude. In June 1960, His Majesty returned to the United States at the invitation of then-President Dwight Eisenhower. He was asked to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He was just 32 years old.
Speaking to Congress, His Majesty said that he had accepted the invitation in part because of what he called “the natural human desire to see my birthplace” – Cambridge – which he returned to on that trip. But he also came, he said, to affirm our two nations’ unique friendship and shared values. As he put it, “Friendship of one government