At his words, all present rose to their feet and, drawing themselves erect before their sovereign for the first time, they made profound obeisance. As Prince Damrong wrote: ‘It was indeed a most impressive and memorable sight.’
Aided by his Prime Minister, the young King, from the first, devoted himself energetically to further reforms, undertaken not only for their own sake but because he was convinced that his father had been right and that only by bringing Siam more into line with the modern world could he secure her continuing independence and freedom from further annexation and colonisation by the French or British. Nothing escaped his attention, from organising and enlarging the army, to improving postal and telegraph services, inaugurating railways, building palaces and laying out tree-lined boulevards bordered by cooling waterways in Bangkok.
‘All children, from my own to the poorest, should have an equal chance of education’, he announced when opening the Suan Khularb School, the first of many new secondary schools. He also determined that nobles and princes should be better instructed and founded a college for them in the palace itself.
Public health was not neglected and, in 1886, the first experimental hospital was opened under the supervision of an American doctor, Peter Cowan. But at first the hospital, though in full working order, was deficient in one respect – there were no patients! People still preferred their traditional remedies. In despair, Dr Cowan suggested filling the empty beds with beggars, whose sores and diseases he guaranteed to cure. But the beggars rejected the offer out of hand, claiming indignantly that a cure would deprive them of their livelihood. Eventually, members of the Hospital Committee were driven to order those of their servants who were ailing into the hospital and, when they emerged the better for treatment, general confidence was gained and there was soon a waiting list of patients.
In 1874 a Committee was convened to consider the abolition of slavery, when Chulalongkorn’s opening address struck an unusual note for an all-powerful monarch; for he began: ‘This is a task too great for one man. Please give me your advice, each one of you.’ The word ‘slave’ or ‘serf’ conjures up a sad picture of inescapable bondage to the Western mind, yet, as Sir John Bowring, leader of the British Mission to Siam, noted in his diary: ‘From what I have seen, I would be inclined to say that slaves are better treated here than servants in England; this is proved by the fact that whenever they are emancipated, they always sell themselves again.’
Chulalongkorn’s first official consort was Princess Sunanda, the eldest of three sisters, the two younger being the Princesses Sawang Vadhana and Saowabha Pongsri, daughters of his father, King Mongkut, though by a different mother, thus making them his half-sisters. Such consanguineous marriages, though forbidden in the country as a whole, were still customary amongst royalty, with the object of maintaining purity of stock and blood for the succession.
Sunanda, his young wife, however, died in particularly tragic circumstances for, when she was only twenty-one and pregnant, she was drowned when the boat carrying her up river to the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-in, capsized. As the penalty for touching any part of the body of a royal personage was death, no-one dared stretch out a hand to save her.
Her death was deeply mourned by her bereaved young husband, but in due time he raised both her sisters to be Queens, though eventually it was the youngest Saowabha, who became Supreme Queen and favourite wife. It was she, and she alone of all the Queens and ladies of the Inside, whose rooms in the palace adjoined those of the King, and who was received even when unaccompanied by him, by the playing of the National Anthem. Saowabha bore him nine children, four of whom died in infancy, the remaining five sons being Vajiravudh, Chakrabongse, Asdang, Chutadhuj and Prajadhipok – Vajiravudh becoming Heir-Apparent in 1895 after the death of Queen Sawang’s son, Crown Prince Maha Vajirunhis.
An innovation introduced by Chulalongkorn was to create some of his sons titular princes of cities or towns along the lines of the English system, thus Vajiravudh became Prince of Dwaravati (previously Ayudhaya, the old capital of Siam), and Chakrabongse, Prince of Bisnulok (a city known for a most noble and beautiful Buddha image, Phra Jinaraja). Both princes, like all Siamese, also had nicknames: Vajiravudh was ‘Toe’, meaning large, and Chakrabongse, ‘Lek’, meaning small.
Dr Malcolm Smith, who came to Bangkok in 1902, and practised among the European community for five years, also later attended the royal family, and while putting at their disposal the skills of modern medicine, judging by his delightful book, A Physician at the Court of Siam, was immensely taken with the charm of the country, its people, and the beauty of its religion, architecture and age-old customs. As Dr Smith possessed the immense advantage of speaking fluent Siamese, his account of daily visits to Queen Saowabha provide an affectionate yet clear-sighted character study of this remarkable woman.
Queen Saowabha and her five sons, Vajiravudh, Chakrabongse, Asdang, Chutadhuj and Prajadhipok.
Queen Saowabha.
He describes her as ‘well-proportioned with delicately shaped hands and feet’, and continues; ‘the years dealt lightly with her, she retained her youthful figure, her face remaining almost unlined and her hair thick and black. She paid great attention to her appearance and spent a long time at her toilet every day’. She washed and bathed in scented water made from freshly cut flowers and aromatic herbs. After her clothes were washed, they were placed in a large earthenware jar, in the lid of which was coiled a long thin candle scented with musk and, the jar being closed, the candle was lit so that its aromatic smoke perfumed all her garments.
He took especial delight in her conversation, which was wide-ranging and included an exact knowledge of European monarchy about whom she spoke as though they were her relations. She talked well although she had received no formal education; her school had been her own experience and her shrewd and observant mind had made full use of it.
Dr Smith also notes that the cropped hair of Siamese women and teeth blackened by chewing betel-nut and polished with additional black pigment till they shone, rendered Siamese women in his day considerably less attractive to Western eyes than they would otherwise have been. But attractive they certainly were, for as Dr Smith remarks: ‘Sexual indulgence by the Siamese is carried to a degree that to most Europeans is incredible. Between the ages of eighteen and forty, it is the over-mastering passion of their lives.’
One might well have thought that with so many queens and the Inside brimming with willing young creatures, whom a word from the King would bring to his bed, that no one woman in particular would be cherished above all others. But in addition to her titles and public position, there are many more charming and intimate mementoes of Chulalongkorn’s special and abiding love for Saowabha, such as joint portraits and many ornaments and pieces of jewellery with entwined initials.
To quote Malcolm Smith again: ‘Chakrabongse was always first favourite both with his Father and Mother. Much was expected of him, for he was regarded as the ablest as well as the handsomest of all the sons. With his dictatorial ways, his determination and his abounding energy, he was to me the only chip off the old block in the family. In complexion he was unusually pale, and his features had little of the Siamese type of countenance …‘. This last point would seem to be wishful thinking on Smith’s part as in fact the prince had a dark complexion occasioned by frequent exposure to the sun during army duties.