Rama I.
Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok , ( Rama I ), (different spelling: Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulalok (e) Thai : พระบาท สมเด็จ พระพุทธ ยอด ฟ้า จุฬา โลก [ pʰráʔ BAT Somdet pʰráʔ pʰúttʰájôt FA t͡ɕùlaː Lok ] * 20th March 1737 in Ayutthaya ( Thailand ) as Thong Duang; † September 7, 1809 in Bangkok ) was King of Siam (old name for Thailand) and is the founder of the Chakri dynasty, which is still ruling today .
Surname
As with other high-ranking people in ancient Siam, the name of Ramas I changed several times in the course of his life, depending on the position he held. Even posthumously, he was referred to by various names or titles. His maiden name was Thong Duang, which is a name; surnames had not yet been introduced.
When he was Deputy Governor of Ratchaburi during the reign of King Suriyamarin of Ayutthaya, he was called Luang Yokkrabat. After the fall of Ayutthaya, he received the titles Phra Ratcharin (chief of police), Phraya Aphairanarit, Phraya Yommarat, Phraya Chakri and Chaophraya Chakri from the new King Taksin, under whom he was one of the most important generals . Ultimately, Taksin created the title Somdet Chaophraya Maha Kasatsuek for him (the full title was much longer), a title of nobility higher than any official or minister had ever carried before and which has only been awarded three times in Thai history. So he was practically on a par with a member of the royal family.
When he ascended the throne himself in 1782, he took the name Ramathibodi, like the founder of the Ayutthaya kingdom. The full name was much longer ( Phra Borommaratchathirat Ramathibodi Sisinthon Borommaha Chakkraphat Rachathibodin etc.) and, as with earlier Siamese kings, was supposed to manifest his universal claim to power.
After his death he was simply referred to by the people as Phaendin Ton ("the first rule"), his son as Phaendin Klang ("the middle rule"). Since with a logical continuation his grandson Rama III. Would have been "the last rule", this ended the practice. For this purpose he donated two Buddha statues, which he had erected in Wat Phra Kaeo and of which he dedicated one to his father and one to his grandfather. He wished that the two earlier kings would henceforth be referred to by the names of these Buddha statues. The one dedicated to the first Chakri king was called Phraphutthayotfa Chulalok ("the Buddha at the top of heaven and the crown of the worlds"). This is how this king is called in Thai history books to this day.
His descendant Vajiravudh (Rama VI.), Who had studied in England, realized that most Siamese royal names were very difficult to reproduce or remember for western foreigners. He therefore ordered that foreigners should name all kings of the Chakri dynasty "Rama", combined with the respective ordinal number. This is why this king is called "Rama I" in Western literature. In 1982, 200 years after his accession to the throne, he was given the nickname Maharat ("the great") by a cabinet decision .
Life
Thong Duang was born in 1737 during the reign of King Borommakot into an old-established family of Ayutthaya . His father's real name was Thong Di and carried the title Phra Aksorn Sundorn Smiantra (in Thai history books he was later given the title Somdet Phra Pathom Borommaha Chanok , which is more appropriate to the father of a king). He was a middle official in the Mahatthai , the Ministry of the Northern Provinces. His ancestry can be traced back to Kosa Pan , Phrakhlang (Foreign Minister) under King Narai . Thong Duang's mother was the daughter of a very rich Chinese family (original sound of King Mongkut for John Bowring : "a beautiful daughter of a Chinese richest family").
At the age of 21, Thong Duang traditionally went to a Buddhist monastery for three months. A short time later he married Nak (1737-1826, later Queen Amarindra), the daughter of a wealthy Mon family in Ratchaburi . She was related to the powerful Persian-born Bunnag family. Through concubines and the marriages of his siblings, he connected himself to all other influential families in the country in the following years. First he got a job with the governor of Ratchaburi, at the age of 25 he became the governor's deputy with the title Luang Yokkrabat . In 1761 he was appointed governor of Ratchaburi province under King Ekathat himself .
After the defeat of Ayutthaya in 1767 and the collapse of the empire, his father became the military chief (Chakri) of the governor of Phitsanulok , who declared himself independent and sought royal dignity. On the other hand, his six years younger brother Surasi ( Bunma ) joined the charismatic, but bourgeois born General Taksin , who organized the resistance against the Burmese occupation and made himself King of Siam with the capital Thonburi in 1768 . Surasi introduced Thaksin to his older brother, who soon assumed leadership positions in his army. As a military leader, Thong Duang was responsible for several of Taksin's campaigns of conquest. In gratitude for his military successes, Thong Duang received the title of Chao Phraya Chakri in 1775 , one of the highest feudal titles apart from the royal family.
In 1778 Chao Phraya Chakri managed to take Vientiane after a brief siege. He brought his war booty from Vientiane, the Emerald Buddha , in a triumphal procession to Thonburi . This was initially housed in the main temple Wat Arun , which was right next to the palace of King Taksin. In addition, the winners abducted hundreds of Laotian families to the central Thai lowlands.
In 1781 Chao Phraya Chakri put down an uprising in Cambodia . At the same time, King Taksin's state of mind became increasingly confused, including executing his wives and children and worshiping himself as Sotapanna (a precursor to enlightenment). He was deposed and killed in a palace revolt, as a 15th century law prescribed for members of the royal family: Wrapped in a velvet sack, he was beaten to death with a sandalwood stick. The now orphaned throne was offered to the Chakri, who was well connected with all the influential families in the country.
Reign
Accession to the throne and new capital
On April 6, 1782, which is still a public holiday today, the Chakri took over the throne of Siam and thus founded the Chakri dynasty, which is still the monarch of Thailand today.
One of his first official acts was to relocate the capital of the Thonburi Empire on the western side of the Chao Phraya River to the east and to build a new metropolis there, which was called Rattanakosin and corresponds to the core of today's Bangkok. With this he initiated the "Rattanakosin period" of Thai history, which continues to this day. There were probably several reasons for the move. It facilitated the defense of the seat of government against a potential attack by the Burmese from the west. Besides, Taksin had only one wooden palace in Thonburi, the expansion of which was hampered by two adjacent temples. In Rattanakosin, on the other hand, the new king was able to build a huge stone palace, the Grand Palace that still exists today . Ultimately he wanted to free himself from the smell of usurpation with such a new beginning .
He had Wat Phra Kaeo built within the palace walls to house the Emerald Buddha, which he conquered from Vientiane and has since been the spiritual symbol of rule of the Siamese kings. With Rattanakosin, Rama wanted to resurrect the destroyed Ayutthaya. He had a moat built around the new capital so that it would lie on an island like Ayutthaya. He also ordered stones to be brought up from the ruins of the old metropolis and used in the new representative buildings in order to create continuity.
Domestic politics
Rama I. endeavored to calm Siam, although liberated from Burmese supremacy and thanks to military successes, was still politically and socially unstable. He wanted to avoid crises and rebellions such as the overthrow of his predecessor Taksin in the future. He revived the traditional ceremonies of the Ayutthaya period, which fell out of use after the fall of the old capital. In this way he re-established a solidified system of community, hierarchy and identity as the basis of the state. It was only when he saw this consolidated in 1785 that he was formally crowned king.
He reorganized the Buddhist Sangha, which the king believed was in crisis. Many monks were poorly educated, disregarded the rules of the order, engaged in immoral acts and adhered to unorthodox teachings. Taksin had also promoted this with his claim that he himself was on the way to Buddhahood. Extreme religious currents circulated, while conservative religious scholars had been demoted and punished by Taksin for opposing him. The new king therefore enacted a series of laws that were supposed to strengthen discipline in the monastic community and appointed devout and well-read clerics to top positions in the Buddhist hierarchy. He also set up commissions to clear up ambiguities in the traditional teaching texts. This reached a climax with the convening of a large council that met from 1788 to 1789 and decided on a binding version of the Tipitaka ("three basket") for Siam , the canon of the Buddha's most important teachings written in Pali. Rama I also had numerous temples restored, re-established or elevated to royal rank (“Wat Luang”) such as B. the Wat Pho . He covered thousands of monks from the state treasury. He thus formed a solid alliance between the monarchy and the religious establishment.
In 1805, Rama I convened a meeting of judges and legal scholars to collect, review and revise the traditional rules and laws of Siam. The king then edited them himself again to exclude regulations that were inappropriate or contradicting his own ideas of justice. The resulting code was enacted as the "Law of the Three Seals" (Kotmai Tra Sam Duang) and served as the core of the Siamese legal system until the late 19th century ( Chulalongkorn's reign ).
Even if he endeavored to restore and consolidate the traditional, Rama I created "something radically new" in the opinion of the historian David K. Wyatt, who specializes in Thai history . Unlike most of the Siamese kings before him, whose rule is often described as arbitrary and despotic, the actions of this king (or his advisors) were structured and guided by certain abstract principles (rooted in Buddhist and Siamese traditions). Although he had Ayutthaya's traditional legal propositions collected, he changed the rules which he thought were unjust. He tried to clean up the canon of the teachings of the Buddha handed down in Ayutthaya from any falsifications that had occurred in the meantime. He had the traditional courtly ceremonies of Ayutthaya reintroduced (as they supposedly were in the "heyday" of Borommakot's rule ), but emphasized their Buddhist elements and pushed the Brahmanic and animistic influences into the background. The historian Barend Jan Terwiel also summarizes the rule of the first Chakri king as “innovation in the guise of orthodoxy” (“innovation in the guise of orthodoxy”). Unlike earlier Siamese kings, Rama I also disclosed his motivation for decisions and tried to justify these to the public (at least the elite who dealt with them) with rational arguments.
Unlike previous usurpers, including his immediate predecessor Taksin, after his accession to the throne, Rama I did not differ much from his former comrades-in-arms, allies and relatives, who now served as ministers, officials and officers under him, but rather took on the role of them a primus inter pares one. He is therefore described as a righteous king.
Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok as the author
The beginning of the reign was still fraught with the almost complete loss of Ayutthaya literature and legal texts. King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok therefore had the laws rewritten and was able to carry out a certain modernization. He was very interested in literature himself and wrote the Ramakien , the Thai version of the Indian Ramayana .
death
Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok died on September 7, 1809 in Bangkok and was cremated there according to the Buddhist rite. His eldest son Itsarasunthon succeeded him on the throne. He is known today as Rama II .
effect
A statue of King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok was erected on the orders of King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) . It stands on the eastern bank of the Mae Nam Chao Phraya at the foot of the Phra Phutthayotfa Bridge . The statue was designed by Prince Narit and made by Professor Silpa Bhirasri . The statue was opened to the public on April 6, 1932 (150 years after the enthronement of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok). Since then, April 6th has been considered Chakri Day and is an official holiday. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his accession to the throne in 1982 he was given the nickname "the great".
See also
literature
- Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand: Lords Of Life, The Paternal Monarchy Of Bangkok . Alvin Redman Ltd., London 1960 (without ISBN).
- David K. Wyatt: Thailand - A Short History . Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 1984, ISBN 974-7047-44-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus Wenk: The restoration of Thailand under Rama I, 1782-1809. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1968, p. 3.
- ^ Sulak Sivaraksa: Siamese Resurgence. A Thai Buddhist Voice on Asia and a World of Change. Asian Cultural Forum on Development, Bangkok 1985, p. 175
- ^ David K. Wyatt : Thailand. A short history. 2nd Edition. Yale University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-300-08475-7 , p. 125.
- ^ Wyatt: Thailand. 2003, p. 126.
- ↑ Maurizio Peleggi: Lords of Things. The Fashioning of the Siamese Monarchy's Modern Image. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2002, pp. 77-78.
- ^ BJ Terwiel : Thailand's Political History. From the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to Recent Times. River Books, Bangkok 2005, p. 65.
- ↑ a b Wyatt: Thailand. 2003, p. 130.
- ^ Wyatt: Thailand. 2003, p. 129.
- ^ BJ Terwiel: Thailand's Political History. From the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to Recent Times. River Books, Bangkok 2005, pp. 63-83.
- ^ Wyatt: Thailand. 2003, p. 130.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rama I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thong Duang (maiden name); Chao chakri; Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok; พระบาท สมเด็จ พระพุทธ ยอด ฟ้า จุฬา โลก (Thai) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of Siam, founder of the Chakri dynasty |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1737 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ayutthaya , Thailand |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 7, 1809 |
| Place of death | Bangkok , Siam |