Yet many would argue that the huge popularity bhumibol enjoys today has been carefully built during the past quarter of a century upon the accumulation of “moral capital.” In fact, one might go even further and propose that the monarchical revival effected by rama IX has produced a resacralization of the king’s person, which seemingly runs contrary to the demotic refashioning of the monarchy in the latter part of the fifth reign. Possibly the most eloquent example of this resacralization was the television broadcast on 20 may 1992, in which the contenders behind the bloody political incidents of the previous days, generals suchinda kraprayun and chamlong simuang, lay literally at king bhumibol’s feet and let him defuse a threatening confrontation as a veritable dues ex machine