Katya & The Prince of Siam

In 1874 a Committee was convened to consider the abolition of slavery, when Chulalongkorn’s opening address struck an unusual note for an all-powerful monarch; for he began: ‘This is a task too great for one man. Please give me your advice, each one of you.’ The word ‘slave’ or ‘serf’ conjures up a sad picture of inescapable bondage to the Western mind, yet, as Sir John Bowring, leader of the British Mission to Siam, noted in his diary: ‘From what I have seen, I would be inclined to say that slaves are better treated here than servants in England; this is proved by the fact that whenever they are emancipated, they always sell themselves again.’

Chulalongkorn’s first official consort was Princess Sunanda, the eldest of three sisters, the two younger being the Princesses Sawang Vadhana and Saowabha Pongsri, daughters of his father, King Mongkut, though by a different mother, thus making them his half-sisters. Such consanguineous marriages, though forbidden in the country as a whole, were still customary amongst royalty, with the object of maintaining purity of stock and blood for the succession.

Sunanda, his young wife, however, died in particularly tragic circumstances for, when she was only twenty-one and pregnant, she was drowned when the boat carrying her up river to the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-in, capsized. As the penalty for touching any part of the body of a royal personage was death, no-one dared stretch out a hand to save her.

Her death was deeply mourned by her bereaved young husband, but in due time he raised both her sisters to be Queens, though eventually it was the youngest Saowabha, who became Supreme Queen and favourite wife. It was she, and she alone of all the Queens and ladies of the Inside, whose rooms in the palace adjoined those of the King, and who was received even when unaccompanied by him, by the playing of the National Anthem. Saowabha bore him nine children, four of whom died in infancy, the remaining five sons being Vajiravudh, Chakrabongse, Asdang, Chutadhuj and Prajadhipok – Vajiravudh becoming Heir-Apparent in 1895 after the death of Queen Sawang’s son, Crown Prince Maha Vajirunhis.

An innovation introduced by Chulalongkorn was to create some of his sons titular princes of cities or towns along the lines of the English system, thus Vajiravudh became Prince of Dwaravati (previously Ayudhaya, the old capital of Siam), and Chakrabongse, Prince of Bisnulok (a city known for a most noble and beautiful Buddha image, Phra Jinaraja). Both princes, like all Siamese, also had nicknames: Vajiravudh was ‘Toe’, meaning large, and Chakrabongse, ‘Lek’, meaning small.

Dr Malcolm Smith, who came to Bangkok in 1902, and practised among the European community for five years, also later attended the royal family, and while putting at their disposal the skills of modern medicine, judging by his delightful book, A Physician at the Court of Siam, was immensely taken with the charm of the country, its people, and the beauty of its religion, architecture and age-old customs. As Dr Smith possessed the immense advantage of speaking fluent Siamese, his account of daily visits to Queen Saowabha provide an affectionate yet clear-sighted character study of this remarkable woman.

 

 

Queen Saowabha and her five sons, Vajiravudh, Chakrabongse, Asdang, Chutadhuj and Prajadhipok.

 

Queen Saowabha.

 

He describes her as ‘well-proportioned with delicately shaped hands and feet’, and continues; ‘the years dealt lightly with her, she retained her youthful figure, her face remaining almost unlined and her hair thick and black. She paid great attention to her appearance and spent a long time at her toilet every day’. She washed and bathed in scented water made from freshly cut flowers and aromatic herbs. After her clothes were washed, they were placed in a large earthenware jar, in the lid of which was coiled a long thin candle scented with musk and, the jar being closed, the candle was lit so that its aromatic smoke perfumed all her garments.

He took especial delight in her conversation, which was wide-ranging and included an exact knowledge of European monarchy about whom she spoke as though they were her relations. She talked well although she had received no formal education; her school had been her own experience and her shrewd and observant mind had made full use of it.

Dr Smith also notes that the cropped hair of Siamese women and teeth blackened by chewing betel-nut and polished with additional black pigment till they shone, rendered Siamese women in his day considerably less attractive to Western eyes than they would otherwise have been. But attractive they certainly were, for as Dr Smith remarks: ‘Sexual indulgence by the Siamese is carried to a degree that to most Europeans is incredible. Between the ages of eighteen and forty, it is the over-mastering passion of their lives.’