Background

Maha Vajiralongkorn was born on 28 July 1952 at 17:45, in the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall of the Dusit Palace in Bangkok. When the crown prince was one year old, Somdet Phra Sangkharat Chao Kromma Luang Wachirayanawong, the 13th Supreme Patriarch of Thailand of the Rattanakosin Era, gave the child his first name at birth, "Vajiralongkorn Borommachakkrayadisonsantatiwong Thewetthamrongsuboriban Aphikhunuprakanmahittaladunladet Phumiphonnaretwarangkun Kittisirisombunsawangkhawat Borommakhattiyaratchakuman". He is the only son, the second of the four children of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

Education

Vajiralongkorn began his education in 1956, when he entered kindergarten at the Chitralada School in Dusit Palace. After completing Mathayom 1 (grade seven), he was sent to be educated at independent schools in the United Kingdom, first at a prep school, King's Mead, Seaford, Sussex, and then at Millfield School, in Somerset, where he completed his secondary education in July 1970. In August 1970, he attended a five-week military training course at The King's School, in Sydney, Australia.

In 1972, the prince enrolled at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra, Australia. His education at Duntroon was divided into two parts, military training by the Australian Army and a bachelor's degree course under the auspices of the University of New South Wales. He graduated in 1976 as a newly commissioned lieutenant with a liberal arts degree.

In 1982 he completed a second bachelor's degree in law with second-class honours at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University.

Career

Vajiralongkorn was proclaimed crown prince on 28 December 1972 at 12:23 in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, making him the third crown prince of the Chakri Dynasty.

He had taken up his duties while serving in the Royal Thai Armed Forces, including frequent provincial tours and representing King Bhumibol at a wide variety of official functions and ceremonies before he ascended the throne.

After completing his studies, Vajiralongkorn served as a career officer in the Royal Thai Army. He served as a staff officer in the Directorate of Army Intelligence and attended the Command and General Staff College in 1977. Vajiralongkorn trained for periods with the US, British, and Australian armed services, studying unconventional warfare and advanced navigation. He is a qualified fixed-wing and helicopter pilot. In 1978 he became head of the King's Own Bodyguard Battalion. Later that year he interrupted his military career to be ordained for a season as a Buddhist monk, as is customary for all Thai Buddhist men.

Vajiralongkorn holds the ranks of Field Marshal (Chom Phon) in the Royal Thai Army, Admiral of the Fleet (Chom Phon Ruea) in the Royal Thai Navy, and Marshal of the Royal Thai Air Force (Chom Phon Akat) in the Royal Thai Air Force. He is qualified to pilot the Northrop F-5 and many other aircraft, F-16, and the Boeing 737-400. His military role in recent years has become increasingly ceremonial. As his father grew older, Vajiralongkorn took a more prominent part in royal ceremonial and public appearances. He officially opened the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, held in Nakhon Ratchasima. The event occurred one day after the 80th birthday of his father.

Vajiralongkorn established "Crown Prince Hospitals" through funds donated by the public to serve as medical and health care centers for people living in remote areas. Crown Prince Hospitals had been set up in 21 locations in 1977. These hospitals had become major community hospitals providing services of international standard to the general public in 2011.

Also interested in agricultural development, Vajiralongkorn has accepted the "Mobile Agricultural Clinic Project" under his patronage. The project provides prompt services to farmers in order to enhance efficiency in farm production and solve farmers' problems. It provides experts in various agricultural fields who can advise farmers on plants, livestock, fisheries, and land development. He also offers suggestions on the tackling of agricultural problems, in addition to the application of agricultural technology to increase productivity and the improvement in the quality of agricultural production.

Mobile Agricultural Clinic teams can move quickly to various spots in need of help. It has worked steadily and is ready to provide technical services and transfer technology. With this project, farmers have been urged to be aware of agricultural development and the application of new technology.

In recent years Vajiralongkorn had represented the late King, Bhumibol Adulyadej, in presiding over the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony, which is meaningful to Thai farmers. Aware of the importance of efficient agriculture for better productivity, Vajiralongkorn emphasized full-cycle agricultural activities, believing they will help improve the quality of life of farmers, who are traditionally considered the backbone of the nation.

Vajiralongkorn has initiated education projects with the aim of improving children's access to quality learning and instilling the concept of lifelong learning. He has special ties to the Rajabhat University system of 40 institutions of higher learning. The chairman of the Council of Rajabhat University Presidents of Thailand said that Vajiralongkorn has presided over commencement ceremonies at all Rajabhat Universities nationwide and personally handed out degrees to all Rajabhat university graduates every year since 1978. It is estimated that over the past 35 years at least 2,100,000 degrees have been handed out by the crown prince to Rajabhat graduates. In addition, every year he donates 42 million baht to a scholarship fund benefiting Rajabhat students.

According to the 2007 Constitution, the cabinet instructed the president of the National Assembly to invite Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn to the throne. He became the first monarch to be born in Thailand since Prajadhipok. After his father, Bhumibol Adulyadej, died on 13 October 2016, Vajiralongkorn was expected to succeed to the throne of Thailand but asked for time to mourn before taking the throne. On the night of 1 December 2016, the fiftieth day after the death of Bhumibol, Regent Prem Tinsulanonda led the heads of the country's three branches of government to an audience with Vajiralongkorn to invite him to ascend to the throne as the tenth king of the Chakri dynasty. Vajiralongkorn accepted the invitation. The government retroactively declared his reign to have begun upon his father's death, but it would not crown him formally until after the cremation of his father. Currently, his main residence is Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall which moved from Nonthaburi Palace on 2011, and didn't move after his father's death.

Achievements

• 

  Vajiralongkorn became the oldest Thai monarch to ascend to the throne.
  
  King Maha Vajiralongkorn has initiated education projects with the aim of improving children’s access to quality learning and instilling the concept of lifelong learning. He has special ties to the Rajabhat University system of 40 institutions of higher learning. He also established “Crown Prince Hospitals” through funds donated by the public to serve as medical and health care centers for people living in remote areas.
  
  He became one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017.

Religion

On 6 November 1978, the prince was ordained as a monk at Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), at age 26. As is traditional for royals, he stayed at Wat Bowonniwet Vihara for 15 days and under the monastic name "Vajiralongkornno".

Politics

Thailand's military-backed parliament voted overwhelmingly in January 2017 to make amendments to the interim constitution so as to allow amendments to the draft constitution as suggested by the new king's office. Critics said the new constitution would give the military a powerful political say for years or decades. The 2017 Constitution of Thailand was approved in a referendum in 2016, and was endorsed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn on 6 April 2017, Chakri day, in a ceremony at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the office of King Vajiralongkorn had asked for several changes to clauses related to royal power in the draft constitution, a rare intervention by a reigning Thai monarch. After the death of King Bhumibol, political activity was paused during a period of mourning that ended in 2017.

In February 2019, in a move called "unprecedented", The King's elder sister, Ubol Ratana announced her candidacy for the Thai prime ministership in the 2019 general election, running as a candidate of the Thaksin-allied Thai Raksa Chart Party. Later that same day, Vajiralongkorn issued an emergency royal decree stating that her candidacy for prime minister is "inappropriate...and unconstitutional". Thailand’s election commission then disqualified her from running for prime minister, formally putting an end to her candidacy.

Views

Quotations: "I would like to accept in order to fulfil his majesty's wishes and for the benefit of all Thais."

Personality

There is a strict, and strictly enforced, lèse majesté law in Thailand. Criticism of the king, queen, crown prince, and more recently, former kings, members of the royal family, and even their pets has long been strictly prohibited, with large fines and prison sentences of up to 35 years being imposed. However, Vajiralongkorn's private life continues to be a controversial subject of discussion in Thailand, although not publicly. In the 10 January 2002 edition of the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), an article appeared suggesting that Vajiralongkorn had business ties with then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. An immediate ban was placed on distribution of the magazine, and the Thai government, citing a threat to national security, suspended the visas of FEER's two Thailand correspondents, Shawn Crispin and Rodney Tasker.

In 2002, The Economist wrote that "Vajiralongkorn is held in much less esteem (than the king). Bangkok gossips like to swap tales of his lurid personal life... Besides, no successor, however worthy, can hope to equal the stature King Bhumibol has attained after 64 years on the throne." This issue of The Economist was banned in Thailand. In 2010, another issue of The Economist, also not distributed in Thailand, said that Vajiralongkorn was "widely loathed and feared" and "unpredictable to the point of eccentricity", while the online journal Asia Sentinel said that he was "regarded as erratic and virtually incapable of ruling"; the journal was blocked shortly thereafter. In a diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks, senior Singaporean foreign ministry official Bilahari Kausikan said that Vajiralongkorn had a gambling habit partly funded by exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. However, one thing that should be aware is that the limits of leaked diplomatic cables that they might be just “messages” rather than “facts” that “sources” want American diplomats to pass to their motherland. No one knows the intention behind that messages. So that in the leaked cables, “facts” might not be as important as “messages” that want to be sent.

On 12 November 2009, a home video was released to WikiLeaks, showing Vajiralongkorn casually dressed and Princess Srirasmi wearing only a G-string, all the while being attended to by several formally dressed servants, celebrating the birthday of the prince's poodle, Air Chief Marshal Fufu. Part of this video was broadcast on the "Foreign Correspondent" programme on the Australian government's ABC TV channel on 13 April 2010, as part of a half-hour documentary critical of the royal family of Thailand.

On 19 January 2009, Harry Nicolaides, an Australian national, was sentenced to three years in prison for self-publishing a fictional book deemed to have committed lèse majesté. The offending passage alluded to rumours that "if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever". Nicolaides was later pardoned by the king. Nicolaides later stated that "it's entirely fiction from cover to cover".

In August 2011, the German judicial authorities in Munich impounded an aircraft, a Boeing 737, one of two belonging to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. Administrators seized the aircraft because of a 20-year-old Thai government debt owed to a now-defunct German construction corporation for the Don Mueang Tollway, that had risen to some €30 million. German authorities, representing the corporation's interests in bankruptcy, stated the measure was a "last resort" in seeking repayment. The Thai government, which had not responded to German demands, called the move "highly inappropriate". On 1 August, Vajiralongkorn's office announced he would pay the deposit amounting to €20 million himself. One day later the Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya confirmed that the Thai government would pay the deposit.

In November 2016, Manager Magazin published a report stating that the new king could be issued with an inheritance tax bill in excess of €3.5 billion. According to the report, the new King is domiciled in Bavaria where he owns two villas and spends most of his time, which makes him subject to local inheritance tax. On 16 May 2017, Thai officials warned Facebook after an online video was posted of the king wearing a crop top and with full view of his half sleeve tattoo. Imgur, the online image-sharing community and image host, has had many users pushing for the Google algorithm to be changed as this blocks such searches.

Physical Characteristics: Height - 5' 7" (1,7 m)

He has tattoos.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  "Mass bicycling events" Vajiralongkorn was once known as the 'Football Prince' but is now renowned for his involvement in cycling. King Rama X has also had shown keen interest in other sports since he was young. He learned horseback riding when he was about 11 years old and soon became a capable rider. While studying in Thailand and abroad, he played several sports with friends including football, rugby and rowing.
  
  Vajiralongkorn also competed in sailing with King Bhumibol and sister Princess Ubolratana when they were staying at Klai Kangwon Palace in Hua Hin. A fine footballer, Vajiralongkorn first played as a forward and later became a centre-back at Chitralada School, Milfield School in England and the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Australia. His love for sports is obviously in his blood through his late father, King Bhumibol.

Connections

On 3 January 1977, Vajiralongkorn married Princess Soamsawali Kitiyakara (born 1957), a first cousin on his mother's side. They had one daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha, born in 1978. Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn started living with actress Yuvadhida Polpraserth in the late-1970s and had five children with her. Although Princess Soamsawali had refused divorce for many years, Vajiralongkorn was finally able to sue for divorce in the Family Court in January 1993. In the court proceedings, Vajiralongkorn accused Princess Soamsawali of being completely at fault for the failed relationship. She was not able to refute the charges due to the prohibition against lèse majesté. The divorce was finalized in July 1993. Princess Soamsawali and her daughter continue to play a significant role in royal ceremonies.

When Vajiralongkorn was introduced to Yuvadhida Polpraserth, she was an aspiring actress. She became his steady companion and gave birth to his first son, Prince Juthavachara Mahidol, on 29 August 1979. He later had three more sons and a daughter by her. They were married at a palace ceremony in February 1994, where they were blessed by the King and the Princess Mother, but not by the Queen. After the marriage, she was allowed to change her name to Mom Sujarinee Mahidol na Ayudhaya, signifying she was a commoner married to royalty. She was also commissioned as a major in the Royal Thai Army and took part in royal ceremonies with Vajiralongkorn. In 1996, two years after the wedding, Mom Sujarinee (as she was now known) decamped to Britain with all her children, while Vajiralongkorn caused posters to be placed all around his palace accusing her of committing adultery with Anand Rotsamkhan, a 60-year-old air marshal. Later, the prince abducted the daughter and brought her back to Thailand to live with him. She was later elevated to the rank of princess, whilst Sujarinee and her sons were stripped of their diplomatic passports and royal titles. Sujarinee and her sons moved to the United States, and as of 2007, she was known as Sujarinee Vivacharawongse.

Vajiralongkorn married a third time on 10 February 2001, to Srirasmi Suwadee (royal name: Akharaphongpreecha), a commoner of modest background who had been in his service since 1992. The marriage was not disclosed to the public until early 2005. She gave birth to a son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, on 29 April 2005 and was then elevated to the rank of princess. Her son was immediately elevated to the rank of prince. In a magazine interview, Vajiralongkorn stated his intention to settle down.

In November 2014, however, Vajiralongkorn sent a letter to the interior ministry asking for Princess Srirasmi's family to be stripped of the royal name Akharaphongpreecha awarded to her, following allegations of corruption against seven of her relatives. The following month, Srirasmi relinquished her royal titles and the royal name and was officially divorced from Vajiralongkorn. She received 200 million baht (US$5.5 million) as a settlement. They had been married for 13 years.

Father:

Bhumibol Adulyadej

(5 December 1927 – 13 October 2016)

He was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty as Rama IX.

Mother:

Sirikit Kitiyakara

(born 12 August 1932)

She is the queen mother of Thailand. She was the queen consort of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (or Rama IX) and is the mother of King Vajiralongkorn (or Rama X).

Sister:

Sirindhorn

(born 2 April 1955)

She is the second daughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Sister:

Ubol Ratana

(born 5 April 1951 in Lausanne, Switzerland)

She is a member of the Thai royal family. She is the eldest child of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

Sister:

Chulabhorn

(born 4 July 1957, Bangkok)

She is a princess of Thailand, the youngest daughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit.

Spouse (1):

Soamsawali

(born 13 July 1957)

She is a member of the Thai royal family, and is the former wife of her first cousin King Vajiralongkorn.

Spouse (2):

Sujarinee Vivacharawongse

(born May 26, 1962)

She is a Thai actress and the second consort of Vajiralongkorn, the then Crown Prince of Thailand, from 1994 to 1996. She now lives in the United States.

Spouse (3):

Srirasmi Suwadee

(born 9 December 1971)

She is a former member of the royal family of Thailand. She was the third consort of then-Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (now Rama X) from February 2001 to December 2014.

Daughter:

Bajrakitiyabha

(born 7 December 1978)

She is a Thai royal diplomat and princess of Thailand, the first grandchild of King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and the only one of the seven children of King Maha Vajralongkorn born to his first wife Princess Soamsavali.

Son:

Juthavachara Vivacharawongse

(born 29 August 1979)

Son:

Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse

(born 27 May 1981)

Son:

Chakriwat Vivacharawongse

(born 26 February 1983)

Son:

Vatchrawee Vivacharawongse

(born 14 June 1985)

Daughter:

Sirivannavari Nariratana

(born 8 January 1987)

She is a princess of Thailand, the only daughter of King Vajiralongkorn and his former consort Sujarinee Vivacharawongse (commonly known as Yuvadhida Polpraserth).

Son:

Dipangkorn Rasmijoti

(born 29 April 2005)

He is a member of the country's Chakri dynasty and heir presumptive to the throne of Thailand. He is the fifth son and seventh and youngest child of King Vajiralongkorn; his mother is Srirasmi Suwadee, the king's third legal wife.

colleague:

Prem Tinsulanonda

(born 26 August 1920)

He is a retired Thai military officer who served as Prime Minister of Thailand from 3 March 1980 to 4 August 1988, during which time he was credited with ending a communist insurgency and presiding over accelerating economic growth and statesman of Thailand.

References

• The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej
• Thailand: Ein Länderporträt