In times of crisis, Thais look to King Bhumibol Adulyadej who has reigned for 60 years, more than any living monarch, and has helped to keep the nation unified through periods of often turbulent change.
BANGKOK: In times of crisis, Thais look to King Bhumibol Adulyadej who has reigned for 60 years, more than any living monarch, and has helped to keep the nation unified through periods of often turbulent change.
Thailand's army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin met with the nation's revered king immediately after declaring that he had staged a coup Tuesday against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
It was pictures of the king that the military leaders behind the coup played on television as they tried to reassure the Thai public their intentions were honourable.
King Bhumibol has few legal powers but wields enormous influence over his people, who revere him with an almost god-like devotion that confounds outsiders more accustomed to the tabloid treatment of European royals.
In a culture where religion and royalty are intertwined, the 78-year-old has carefully nurtured his role as caretaker of his people and helped Thailand weather six decades of political and social upheaval.
"In times of crisis, when we reach an impasse or stalemate, we look up to the king to help us find a way out," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chuloalongkorn University, said on the occasion of his 60th anniversary on the throne in June.
An accomplished yachtsman, painter, author and musician, the king was born on December 5, 1927, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His father Prince Mahidol was studying medicine at Harvard, and as the younger brother in the family, no one ever expected him to take the throne.
His father died while he was still a toddler, and his mother kept the family in the United States and Europe for most his youth, hoping to protect them from the political upheaval at home that saw the Kingdom of Siam transform into a constitutional monarchy called Thailand.
She succeeded, to a degree.
The king's elder brother died on the throne, of a gunshot wound to the head in circumstances never fully explained.
He was proclaimed king the same day, June 9, 1946.
After his ascension to the throne, he went to Switzerland to study and was not formally crowned until four years later in May 1950, when he received the official royal name Rama the Ninth. His full name means Strength of the Land -- Incomparable Power.
The grandeur of the title matches the reverence with which the Thai monarch is regarded.
His picture hangs in every taxi, office and shop. Before every film, audiences stand in cinemas to pay him homage while pictures of the king flash across the screen.
People stop and stand to pay respect to the king, even on subway platforms during rush hour, when the national anthem is played twice a day on radio and television.
His steady hand has seen him outlast 20 prime ministers, 15 constitutions and at least as many coups.
Despite carving out a position of strict neutrality in politics, he has occasionally intervened to spectacular effect.
In 1973, after riots broke out at a Bangkok university, he asked a prime minister and his henchman to leave the country in a bid to halt a rising tide of social disorder. They obeyed.
In 1992 he called then-prime minister General Suchinda Kraprayoon to his palace and humiliated him on television for ordering a bloody military crackdown on demonstrations against his government.
The prime minister resigned.
Most recently on April 25, the king publicly castigated Supreme Court judges and ordered them to break a political deadlock caused by months of street protests and inconclusive elections.
"If you cannot do it, then you may have to resign. You must find ways to solve the problem," he told them in a voice barely above a whisper.
The judges nullified the elections and ordered new polls.
He has also won the hearts of the Thai people is his persistent advocacy for the ancient Buddhist values of self-sufficiency and moderation in the face of a rapidly growing consumer culture. He sponsors thousands of development projects around the country, many based on his own research for water control, taking particular interest in finding ways to stop flooding in Bangkok.
"Thirty years ago, Bangkok had a big flood, and he came in a small boat to see the people," 50-year-old Chommapat Sodsai, who works for an environmental group, remembered at the king's 60th anniversary on the throne.
"He didn't say anything (about leaving the palace), he just came to see the damage. That's our king."
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