When army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin staged a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006, he went immediately to meet King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The military broadcast the king's image on television to reassure the public of its intentions.
King Bhumibol, 78, has reigned for 60 years, longer than any other living monarch. Born on 5 December 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father was studying medicine at Harvard, he had no expectation of ruling. He became king on 9 June 1946 after his elder brother died of a gunshot wound under circumstances never explained, and was formally crowned in May 1950 as Rama the Ninth.
The king holds few formal legal powers but commands extraordinary loyalty. His portrait appears in shops, offices, and taxis; audiences rise in cinemas for the national anthem; commuters stop on subway platforms for the twice-daily broadcast. Over six decades he has outlasted 20 prime ministers, 15 constitutions, and as many coups.
His direct interventions have been rare but decisive. In 1973 he pressured a prime minister to leave the country during civil unrest; the man complied. In 1992 he summoned a military premier to the palace and publicly rebuked him over a violent crackdown on demonstrators; that man resigned. In April 2006 he instructed the Supreme Court to break a political deadlock, and the judges nullified the disputed elections and ordered new ones.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.