Monarchy of Thailand - Kings of Ayutthaya

Kings of Ayutthaya

The Kingdom of Sukhothai was eventually supplanted by the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, which was founded in 1351 by King Ramathibodhi I. During the Ayutthayan period the idea of kingship changed. Due to ancient Khmer tradition in the region, Hindu concept of kingship was applied for the status of the leader. Brahmins took charge in the royal coronation. The king was treated as if a reincarnation of Hindu gods. Ayutthaya historical documents show the official titles of the kings in great variation; Indra, Shiva and Vishnu, or Rama. Seemingly, Rama was the most popular, as in 'Ramathibodhi'. However, Buddhist influence was also evident as many times the king's title and 'unofficial' name Dhammaraja, a corruption the Buddhist Dharmaraja. The two former concepts were re-established, with a third, older concept taking a more serious hold. This concept was called “Devaraja” (Thai: เทวราชา) (or Divine-King), which was an idea borrowed by the Khmer Empire from the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of Java, and especially the idea of a scholar class based on Hindu Brahmins. The concept centered on the idea that the king was an incarnation (Avatar) of the god Vishnu and that he was a Bodhisattva (enlightened one), therefore basing his power on his religious power, his moral power and his purity of blood.

The king, portrayed by state interests as a semi-divine figure, then became – through a rigid cultural implementation – an object of worship and veneration to his people. From then on the monarchy was largely removed from the people and continued under a system of absolute rule. Living in palaces designed after Mount Meru (Home of the gods in Hinduism), the kings turned themselves into a “Chakravartin”, where the King became an absolute and universal lord of his realm. Kings demanded that the universe be envisioned as resolving around them, and expressed their powers through elaborate rituals and ceremonies. For four centuries these kings ruled Ayutthaya, presiding over some of the greatest period of cultural, economic and military growth in Thai History.