SCI., HUMAN., N05E, 2006MONGKUT, CHULALONGKORN AND THE GENERATIONS OF SIAM REFORMERS IN THE PREM ODERN PERIOD associated with the nam es of King Chulalongkorn Rama V, 1868-1910 and thre
Trang 1VNU.JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, soc SCI., HUMAN., N05E, 2006
MONGKUT, CHULALONGKORN AND THE GENERATIONS OF
SIAM REFORMERS IN THE PREM ODERN PERIOD
associated with the nam es of King
Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910) and
three genarations of reformers who
successfully led the modernization cause
of Siam Kingdom (former nam e of
Thailand) which helped this kingdom
overcome the hazard of invasion from
colonialism Nowadays, T hai people still
worship these two kings as Buddha-
Emperors who enlighted and set the
foundation for the birth of modern Thai
This article focuses on studying the
biography, career and especially elements
which have created th e ta le n t of these
two kings as well as the generations of
national ta le n t who successfully led this
famous movem ent of reform Based on
this, it is possible to m ake rem ark s on
the im portance of national talen t in this
movement of reform in prem odern Siam
in order to gain historic experiences for
the strateg y of ta le n t developm ent in
V ietnam nowadays
1 H isto ric a l backgroun d,
b io g ra p h y and th e p ro cess o f
b e c o m in g ta le n ts o f M ongkut
and C h u la lo n gk o rn
Septem ber 20th in 1853 H is fath er was
n Assoc.Prof Dr., Vietnam National Univeristy, Hanoi
P ham H ong T u n g r)
M ongkut had 39 wives an d 82 children including 43 princesses and 39 princes
C hulalongkorn w as not th e first son of
M ongkut However, because he was the first son born to Q ueen Rampoey, he was
th e official successor of M ongkut
C hulalongkorn w as firstly associated
w ith th e ta le n t an d personality of his father, an d th e story of King M ongkut
w as also one of th e m ost in te re stin g ones
in th e prem odern period of T hailand
M ongkut w as not th e fisrt son either However, he w as th e first son born to the
Q ueen an d King R am a II (1809-1824)
He w as 20 w hen h is fa th e r passed away
It w as also th e period w hen Siam kingdom u n d er th e ru lin g of C hakri dynasty w as facing v ital challenges At
th e end of th e 18th cen tu ry an d the beginning of th e 19th century, W estern capitalism invasion an d colonialization were a t th e ir h e ig h t in E a st Asia Among colonialist natio n s, B rita in an d France
w ere th e m ost pow erful M any countries and peoples in th is region were conquered an d d om inated w hile others
w ere facing th e h a z a rd of being attack ed , invaded or divided
C hakri d y n asty w as founded in 1782, which p u t an end to a chaotic tim e in the
4 9
Trang 250 Pham Hong Tung
history of this country after th e collapse
of Ayudhya dynasty and the dominance
of the Burm an U nder the reigns of
Rama I and Ram a II, Siam kingdom
recovered quickly and reached the peak
of decentralistic B uddhist mornachy
The territory was more extended th an
ever before However, th is was also the
tim e when W estern colonialists began to
pay attention to Siam and th re a te n the
independence of th is kingdom [1, p 113]
In 1822, B ritish colonialist governm ent
in India sent a mission led by John
permission to trade However, nobody in
Ram a IFs court could u n derstand
English [1, p 114] The failure of the
negotiation made C raw furd leave in
fury, which foretold th a t a real hazard
was on its way Soon after th a t Ram a II
fell ill and the w hite elephant, the sacred
symbol of the Royal family, also died
As if he could predict fu tu re events,
Rama II made decisions which He did
not designate M ongkut as his successor
although M ongkut was the only official
crown prince On the contrary, he
ordered M ongkut to shave his head and
become a monk, th en designated his
eldest son (who was 43 a t th a t time) to
be the successor to the throne
After his accession to th e throne,
cautious about the relationship with
W estern countries” It seem ed th a t he
also predicted th is challenge in the
future, so he didn’t designate a viceroy
(due to the trad itio n of the mornachy in
designates a viceroy to be the successor
in case the king dies unexpectedly) It was likely th a t he implicitly reserved this position for Mongkut, who should have been th e successor of Rama II
As for M ongkut, after following his fath er’s order to shave his head and become a monk, he immediately devoted all of his mind and strength to this career However, he did it in his own way F isrt of all, he tried his best to study Pali, a kind of dead language which costs an ordinary monk many years to m aster if he w ants to
u n d erstan d B uddhist scripture However, w ith his prom inent talent,
M ongkut only took less th an 2 years to
m aster Pali and then passed the
Council to become the leader of Buddhist Church of th is kingdom Also during this time, he got acquainted with a Freeh
m issionary nam ed Mosignor Pallegoix
He ta u g h t Mosignor Pali and Thai while the m issionary ta u g h t him English,
fundam ental sciences Besides, he also made acquaintance with other several
W estern m issionaries to learn scientific knowledge from them He learned these strange knowledge and languages with special intelligence and wisdom
At the end of 1825, the second
B ritish mission led by Henry Burney
negotiation and request Siam to open the country for trade At th a t time
VNU, Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., N £E , 2006
Trang 3Mongkut, Chulalongkom and the generations o f Siam 51
B ritish colonialists had ju s t declared the
first invasion to conquer Burm a The
negotiation lasted for nearly a year and
came to a standstill However, when
B ritish arm y won the w ar and forced
Em peror of B urm a to sign a peace
treaty, Ram a III invited M ongkut to join
the negotiation and he cleverly convinced
both sides to sign a treaty in 1826 which
minimized disadvantages for Siam
M ongkut also prom ptly forwarded
two things which la te r played decisive
roles in th e reform of him and his son
First, he declared th e reform in the
B uddhist C hurch of Siam tow ards
elim inating the superstition, stagnation
and degradation of the clergy and
restoring th e rationalism and secularism
of prim itive Buddihism As a result,
after years of consistent persuasion,
M ongkut founded and became the leader
of a new sect called D ham m ayaut which
g athered Siam reform atory chapters
together Second, he gathered around
h im se lf a force including several young
princes and m em bers of m ost powerful
aristo crat fam ilies, especially the
Bunnag, to focus on studying W estern
languages, sciences and technology This
was th e first step in the prep aratio n of
ta le n ts which were one of th e decisive
factors determ ining the destiny of the
reform afterw ards [1, p 119; 2, p 117]
A fter th e Opium W ar (1839-1842),
W estern colonialist countries intensified
the race to invade A sia an d fought with
one a n o th e r over rem aining lands to
make them th e ir colonies The pressure
on n atio n al sovereignty of kingdoms
such as China, V ietnam , Siam, Burma, etc., increased day by day In pagodas,
M ongkut, C huang B unnag and the group of young aristo crat intellectuals implicitly m onitored la te st incidents in the world and th e region and they
W estern learning
In April 1851, R am a III passed away
W ith the strong support of powerful aristocrat forces, especially Bunnag lineage, M ongkut gave up the frock and came to the throne crowned as Ram a IV Right after his accession to the throne, M ongkut h ad to face w ith strong pressure from W estern colonialism In the years 1850 and 1851, B ritist colonialists continuously sent missions
to Bangkok to ask C hakri dynasty to open the country for trade In March
1855, another m ission led by John Bowring was sen t to Bangkok to demand for trade This dem and was pertained
w ith the public th r e a t of violent attack
At the same time, B ritish arm y declared the Second invasion to annex Burma
W hen Bowring arrived in Bangkok, the m anner of Siam court changed completely King M ongkut and M inister
of Foreign Affairs and South E ast
C huang P hraya B unnag (Suriyawong) them selves welcomed him a t th e wharf
D uring th e talk afterw ards, the King him self even offered Boring coffee, cigars and began the ta lk by n a rra tin g in English w hat he had read in the
Hongkong D aily th a t day All of this
made a special im pression on Bowring about an innovated and tru sty court In
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April 1855, the new treaty betw een Siam
and B ritain was signed, in which
Mongkut decided to strongly reduce
import-export tax and ensure the free
trade while B ritain pledged to recognize
Siam ’s sovereignty over peripheral areas
in the North of M alaysian peninsula and
N ortheast Burma A fterw ards, Siam also
signed a series of sim ilar tre a tie s with
France, The U nited S tates, Denm ark,
Portugal and the N etherlands These
treaties created significant changes in
the trade between Siam and W estern
countries If in 1852 only th ree W estern
m erchant ships arrived a t Bangkok port,
this figure in 1856 was 200 As a result,
a reform in the aspects of tax system,
services, etc became im perative [1,
p 122]
So, the reform really began M ongkut
actively invited dozens of specialists
from W estern countries to Siam to work
as advisors for him and th e court in
many aspects, including legislation,
adm inistration, diplomacy an d especially
established for princes and mem bers of
aristocrat families un d er the direct
guidance of W estern lecturers The king
and royal family also directly invested in
several services
Bunnag understood clearly th a t it was
not easy for conservative forces,
especially the aristocracy, to accept the
Consequently, although M ongkut knew
exactly the way of th e reform, he was
still very cautious and only im plem ented
reforms th e success of which was absolutely ensured
understood the mission of forwarding the reform would be put on the shoulders of his successor As a result,
he set up a special training program for the crown prince Chulalongkorn very early This train in g program was designed by M ongkut him self based on his own experiences of self-education in
become an innovative king who could face w ith challenges in the near future Chulalongkorn began to learn under the guidance of Thai Royal lecturers when he was only 7 He received the
train in g reserved for princes in many aspects, such as Thai w riting, Pali, royal practices, ritu als, Buddhism, historical chronicles, official regulations, th e a rt of
command Besides, he also studied a t a special school under the guidance of
W estern m issionaries and professors He
W estern tu to rs to teach th is young crown prince directly Among them , perhaps M rs A nna Leonowens, a B ritish professor, was most in stru m en tal on the
personality of the future king She had been living continuously in th e Royal Palace during th e 5 year period from
1862 to 1867 to teach C hulalongkorn [1, p.124]
VNU, Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., N^E, 2006
Trang 5Mongkut, Chulalongkom and the generations o f Siam. 53
However, the real “teacher” who had
C hulalongkorn’s talent, personality and
stuff w as no other th a n his father, King
M ongkut M ongkut always kept his son
by his side since Chulalongkorn was only
7 A fter school time, th is prince, together
with h is father, norm ally dealt with
daily m a tte rs of the kingdom so th a t he
could u n d erstan d the ruling method
M ongkut also step by step ta u g h t
C hulalongkorn the m ethod and the
indispensable way of reform ing the
relationship with W estern countries He
even w an ted to pass his passion of
studying W estern sciences to his son On
A ugust 18,1868, M ongkut invited some
of his W estern friends to travel w ith him
to Wa Kaw to observe an eclipse and he
brought Prince Chulalongkorn along
U nfortunately, both he and his son
contracted m alaria in th is trip After
re tu rn in g to Bangkok, M ongkut passed
Chulalongkorn, who was lucky to survive,
came to th e throne a t th e age of 15
2 The reform o f C h ulalongk orn
and th e n e x t g e n e r a tio n s o f
ta le n ts
C hulalongkorn becam e King when he
\vas only 15, so he didn’t hold the real
power yet The real power th en fell into
the h a n d of R egent C haophraya Si
Suriyaw ong (C huang Bunnag) In fact,
C huang B u n n ag was also th e backbone
of the reform faction who h ad stood by
the side of M ongkut for dozens of years
However, he didn’t in ten d to carry out
radical reforms b u t only w anted to make certain changes in several policies to
m ake peace w ith W estern countries as well as to protect th e benefits of Bunnag lineage and Thai aristocracy
Chulalongkorn still concentrated on study and im plicitly gathered his force
He made acquaintance w ith a group of young princes an d some aristocratical youths, drove them to follow him to study W estern modern sciences and travelled with them to visit colonies such as Jav a (Indonesia) of the
N etherlands and Singapore, India and
B urm a of B ritain D uring these trips Chulalongkorn and aristocratical youths (sometimes the num ber of the delegation
was over 70) observed with their own
eyes and acquired su b stan tial first-hand experiences of useful things in ruling art, adm in istratio n and W estern paradigm of the economy, industry, services and the m odality of m ilitary and
B ritish, Dutch an d Portuguese were applying in neighbour colonies [1, p.125]
Chulalongkorn celebrated his second enthronem ent an d began to hold the real power himself The young king eagerly sta rte d the reform following w hat his fath er had ju s t began He declared the abolishm ent of slavery and th e practice
of kowtow in th e court, changed the style
of court a ttire and set up a S tate council and a Privy council which consisted of
VNU, Journal of Science, Soc., Sci., Human., NJE, 2006
Trang 654 Pharr Hong Tung
agencies Chulalongkorn also declared
the reform in the tax system, gathered
financial resources in the h an d of the
central government, made changes in
judicial system, etc
Such significant reforms created new
vitality and drivingforce of developm ent
for the kingdom Youth, m erchants and
reforms and supported th e young king
However, the reforms had m ade a shock
Especially, the abolishm ent of slavery
and the change in financial system had
directly attacked th e ir benefits and
power As a result, these conservative
forces concentrated around viceroy
W ichaichan and then launched a revolt
in an attem p t to overthrow King
Chulalongkorn in 1875
Although W ichaichan’s revolt was
unsuccessful, it was a strict w arning to
Chulalongkorn’s hasty steps He realized
th a t the reform atory forces h ad n ’t been
strong enough So, he tem porarily
delayed reform plans an d gathered
forces for the next steps According to
th at, many princes were sen t abroad to
study For example, Prince V ajiravuth
studied m ilitary science an d history in
B ritain, other 4 princes and some
aristocrat members studied m ilitary and
sciences in Germany, R ussia, D enm ark,
etc After they had finished th eir study
im portant positions in th e governm ent
which th eir fathers an d uncles were
holding Thus C hulalongkorn not only
succeeded in training talents for the reform b u t also peacefully staged a coup d’e ta t to overthow the conservatives forces and brought the reform atory faction to power
Based on this, from 1880s, after most key-figures of conservative aristo crat factor were already dead, including late Recent C huang Bunnag, Chulalongkorn started a new period of the reform
This tim e, th an k s to more careful preparation w ith stronger reformatory force including mainly princes, the king’s brothers and members of large aristo crat families, Chulalongkorn im plem ented more intensive reforms in various aspects of economics, politics, education, etc In 1885, he dicided to reorganize central governm ent system, abolish the
centralistic one and establish m inistries
to un d ertak e different functions of the governm ent like a W estern cabinet
M inisters were all princes and the king’s brothers who had retu rn ed after their train in g in Europe Afterwards, Chulalongkorn also im plem ented the reform in local authorities system to gather power in the h an d of central
government This reform changed the
hereditory lords to m andarins who were appointed, paid and could be dismissed
by the court[2, p 184]
W hile th e first period of the reform cause had ju s t been started, British colonialism also declared th e Third invasion to annex Burm a and completed
VNU, Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., N^E, 2006
Trang 7Mongkut, Chulalongkom and the generations o f Siam 55
th eir 30-year conquest In order to
relieve th e p ressu re from the W est and
the S outhw est, Siam had to give up
m any p erip h eral territories contiguous
with B urm a to B ritish colonialism In
the E ast, French colonialism had also
completed the conquest over Vietnam
and Cambodia In 1887 they annexed
Laos I t is w orth noticing th a t a t th a t
time Laos an d Cambodia were still
considered dependent territo ries of
Siam The conflict betw een Siam army
and F rench forces on the side of Mekong
river m ade th e relationship between
Siam a n d F rance become terribly
battlesh ip s crossed C haophraya estuary
and th e n w ent up stream to Bangkok
This tim e, to save the destiny of the
kingdom, C hulalongkorn had to en tre a t
help from B ritain to m ediate with
France As a resu lt, Siam had to give up
all p erip h eral territo ries to B ritish and
French colonialism C hulalongkorn only
ruled th e territo ry of T hailand nowadays
which is about a h alf of the territory
ruled by R am a III [2,p 185-186],
Due to the p ressu re from W estern
colonialism, C hulalongkorn’s reform had
to slow down once again The King
him self fell into a serious m ental crisis
because so m any territo ries had been
lost to th e h an d s of B ritish and French
colonialism He once had the intention of
leaving his throne However, after
several y ears of recu p aratio n w ith the
help of Royal fam ily and B uddhist
Church, he recovered and, since 1898,
continued th e next steps of his reform
In fact, even while the king was in crisis, princes such as Damrong and Devawongse were still forwarding the reform and continued to strengthen the govenm ent system, legislation and
m ilitary Especially, education made
schools following W estern model were constructed all over the kingdom If the num ber of pupils in 1898 was only 5000,
it increased to 84.000 in 1910 Ơ2, p 186] One of the m ost im portant aspects in
C hulalongkorn’s reform was foreign affairs Like his father, Chulalongkorn had prepared him self very early with
v ast and regularly undated knowledge of
W estern cultures, sciences, languages and politics in order to be in contact with
W estern countries a t the high level of
th is age He actively hired hundreds of
W estern specialists to Bangkok to help the court in the aspects of economics, education and foreign affairs He even hired m any W esterners to work as Siam
am bassadors in W estern countries The King him self usually exchanged mails
w ith F rench Em peror, B ritish Queen,
P ru ssia n Em peror, the Czar and other
Som etim es Siam was saved th an k s to
instance in 1875 and 1892-1893 crises [1,
p 125]
The decisive aspect of reform in Siam
m odernization in th is period was the economic reform Chulalongkorn and
C hakri court bravely invited W estern countries to invest in railroads,
m otorways and production which set the
l'NU, Journal of Science, Soc., Sci., Human., NJ E, 2006
Trang 856 Pham Hong Tung
foundation for modern industry The
royal family itself also invested in m any
fields These factors paved th e way for
the capitalization of Siam W hen
Chulalongkorn passed away on October
23, 1910, the foundation for the
capitalization and m odernization had
been firmly set Chulalongkorn’s reform
started by his fath er M ongkut since
1851 was fundam entally completed
Although its success w as not as
spectacular as J a p a n ’s Meiji renovation,
it was enough not only to bring Siam out
of the invasion hazard from W estern
countries b ut also to open th e way and
set the foundation for the b irth of a
modern Thailand
3 Som e com m en ts on
g en era tio n s o f S iam ta le n ts
in prem odern period
The most prom inent characteristic of
the successful reform in Siam in th e
prem odern period was the thorough
reformers of Siam from the generation of
Mongkut and C huang Bunnag, then th e
generation of Chulalongkorn, princes
generation of V ajiravuth and m any other
young aristocrats, were all thoroughly
trained
However, each generation of talen ts
above was trained in different ways To
the genaration of M ongkut và C huang
Bunnag, self-study and self-training
played the most decisive role, while th e
talen ts of Chulalongkorn generation were the outcome of clever m ixture among self-study, self-training an d a train in g process following an itin erary which had already been designed w ith proper curricula and a painstaking tu to r program As for the third generation,
th eir ta le n t was mainly formed through
th eir study abroad a t top-ranking universities an d colleges in Europe
The special point was th a t Mongkut generation designed the training for and wisely used Chulalongkorn generation, and in tu rn , this generation also concentrated on designing the plan to tra in the next generations for the reform It was Siam ’s strategy of talen ts
in the prem odern period, one of the factors which decided its reform cause It was also a profound example for the innovation of our country nowadays Although they were the outcome of different train in g itineraries, all talents
in the reform of Siam in the premodern period had 2 im portant characteristics,
characteristics in King Chulalongkorn’s personality and talent
First, they were the outcome of train in g itin eraries with clear purposes
W hether they were self-trained or train ed following a pre-designed itinerary, all of them had clear
aw areness of the mission they had to undertake in the future, th a t meant, the mission of leading and implementing the reform and modernization of the country following W estern paradigm This was the solution which they regarded as the
VNU, Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., NJE, 2006
Trang 9Mongkut, Chulalongkom and the generations o f Siam- 57
only way to save th eir country This
aw areness created th eir g reat ambition
and based on th a t foundation, they
prepared for them selves necessary
knowledge, skills and stuff in order to
finally tra in them selves as ta le n ts who
could satisfy th e dem ands set up by this
misson I t w as a lesson w ith great
practical significance for the talent
strategy of our country today
Second, although itin eraries of
training ta le n ts in Siam in the
prem odern period were different from
characteristic, th a t is, the clever m ixture
between two factors: the trad itio n al and
the modern, th e nation and the age This
m anifested by M ongkut and his son
characteristic, C hulalongkorn an d Siam
reform ers w ere very successful in
applying w h a t they had le a rn t into
practice They were W estern educated
intellectuals who could keep pace with
the age in the aspect of knowledge, but
first of all th ey w ere all m em bers of Thai
aristocracy who alw ays associated
them selves w ith national and royal
traditions As a result, they could
u n d e rsta n d th e dem and of their
kingdom an d knew how to prom ote th eir
own ability in th e m ost appropriate way
It is a n o th e r lesson which is valuable for
the cause of ta le n t developm ent of our
country today
A n o th er special issue which can be
C hulalongkorn and th e success of the
reform in Siam was how to use talents
In fact, it is an im portant p a rt which decides the success of the whole strategy
of talen t developm ent of every country in any ages The success of the reform in Siam originated from the fact th a t the royal family and the aristocrary were consistent in honoring and using the talented M ongkut If M ongkut hadn’t been enthroned in 1851, the history of Siam would have followed another direction After th a t, the training and use of new generations of talen ts were carefully planned and consistently supported Certainly, the obstacles hindering th is strategy were quite considerable, including conservative forces and invaders There were even tim es when th e reform atory faction seemed to lose completely In these cases, it was prodigious talen ts of Siam who knew how them selves could be used most efficiently As for M ongkut, his secret was to ta k e advantage of the
B uddhist C hurch’s support a t first Then
he actively made balance between forces, forwarded the reform a t appropriate rate and didn’t challenge all opponents a t the sam e time
M ongkut’s key to success was acquired and radically tak en advantage
of by Chulalongkorn However, based on practical situations, Chulalongkorn was even more creative in prom oting the relationships w ith W estern heads of state in order to ta k e advantage of them
to escape from dangers caused by the coercion from conservative forces and colonialism w hen necessary
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Trang 1058 Pham Hoag T ung
The biography of reform atory talents
in Siam was also a noticeable factor It
w as not ju st by chance th a t M ongkut
an d Chulalọngkorn concentrated on
tra in in g generations of young aristocrats
into talented reformers This related to
th e ir positions in Siam political system
As aristocrats, they could be easily
approved to hold critical ru lin g positions
to replace conservative aristo crat forces
As a result, the tran sfer of political
power from conservative faction to
reform atory faction happened relatively
smooth J u s t try to im agine if Siam
reform ers h ad not belonged to tthe
aristocracy, it would have been likely
th a t th eir ta le n t wouldn’t have got a deserving job and it would have been very difficult for th e reform to succeed It was one of th e fundam ental reasons which led to th e failure of reformatory tendencies in V ietnam and China in th e prem odern period It is an issue which needs atten tio n in the cause of ta le n t development in our country nowadays, especially in th e aspects of management and leadership
REFERENCES
1 Rong Syamananda, A History o f Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 1976,
2 Steinberg, David Joel (ed.), In Search o f Southeast Asia, University of Hawaii Press,
Honolulu, 1987
VNU, Journal of Science, Soc., Sci., Human., N„5E2006