King Bhumibol Adulyadej
The King was born on Monday the 5th of December 1927, at Mount Auburn
Hospital, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A., being the third and
youngest child of Prince and Princess Mahidol of Songkla.
He attended the Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande, Chailly sur
Lausanne. Later on he moved to the Gymnase Classique Cantonal of
Lausanne from where he received his Bachelier s lettres diploma. He then
chose to enter Lausanne University to study science, but the sudden
death of his elder brother, King Ananda Mahidol, in Bangkok on June 9,
1946, changed the course of his life completely, for the Law of
Succession bestowed on him the arduous but challenging function of the
Thai Crown. The Government on behalf of the people came to ask the
Princess Mother for her other son to be their King. As he had not
finished his education, He decided to go back to Switzerland for another
period of study, but this time in the subject of Political Science and
Law in order to equip himself with the proper knowledge for government.
Following the completion of his education in Switzerland in the early
1950s, He returned home to Thailand. In the years following, he began
what has become his way of life - travelling throughout the year to the
provinces and rural areas of the kingdom to visit his people, talk to
them and, perhaps even more important, listen to them. He learns first
hand of their needs and their problems and then sets about trying to
find a way of giving immediate help; later these problems are studied in
depth to find a permanent solution or way of assistance.
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