I knew it! He had to be a monk.
Just prior to his father’s death Mongkut was ordained as a Buddhist monk at an unusually young age and he studiously absorbed the knowledge of Buddhist texts and the mental discipline of meditation. His half-brother, King Rama III, claimed the throne after the death of their father (Rama II). He appointed Mongkut abbot of a new Buddhist order, which also served as a centre for western scientific and mathematic studies…
Life of King Mongkut
King Mongkut was born in 1804. He spent more than half of his adult life (27 years) travelling the countryside with an alms bowl as a barefoot saffron-robed monk As a monk he ate only one meal a day, spent much of his time studying Buddhist scriptures and was abbot of a temple near Bangkok. Before he became king he spent a great deal of time studying history, astronomy and foreign languages. He s said to have mastered at least 10 modern and ancient languages.
Mongkut's father, Loet La (Rama II, 1809-24), had placed him in a Buddhist monastery in 1824 to prevent a bloody succession struggle between factions loyal to Mongkut and those supporting Nang Klao (although Nang Klao was older than Mongkut, his mother was a concubine, whereas Mongkut's mother was a royal queen). As a Buddhist monk, Mongkut won distinction as an authority on the Pali Buddhist scriptures and became head of a reformed order of the Siamese sangha. Thai Buddhism had become heavily overlain with superstitions through the centuries, and Mongkut attempted to purge the religion of these accretions and restore the spirit of Buddha's original teachings. [Source: Library of Congress]
Mongkut's twenty-seven years as a Buddhist monk made him a religious figure of some consequence and exposed him to a wide array of foreign influences. Blessed with an inquiring mind and great curiosity about the outside world, he cultivated contacts with French Roman Catholic and United States Protestant missionaries. He studied Western languages (Latin and English), Sanskrit, Pali, science, and mathematics. His lengthy conversations with the missionaries gave him a broad perspective that greatly influenced his policies when he became king in 1851. He was more knowledgeable of, and at ease with, Western ways than any previous Thai monarch. He died of malaria in 1868.
