Unofficial Royalty

Out of the countries that I have visited in Asia, Thailand is my favourite. As well as being exotic, with its magnificent buildings and temples and its diverse natural beauty, it is also a country whose people are not only attractive but also beautifully natured. Even more, for a self-indulgent Libra like me, the Thai cuisine is utterly superb.

The Kingdom has been much in my thoughts over the past few weeks. I had planned to write a column on the Thai Royal Family but as I watch the devastation caused by Boxing Day’s Tsunami, it is hard to ignore the impact the wave had on the world. People from all corners of the globe have been affected, including King Bhumipol’s immediate family.

Most of the places hit by the wave are ones that I had been too. As unrecognisable as they are now, I can still remember the feeling of sun baking on the sand under a warm sun and swimming in the crystal clear tropical waters. I can remember the exhaustion at the end of the day that I felt from the effort of doing these rigorous activities and the hunger it built in my (regrettably still insatiable) stomach.

So, I have no trouble putting my feet in the shoes of the thousands of tourists affected by that day. I think we can all imagine the lazy contentment they felt earlier on that morning. And, I suspect, King Bhumipol’s eldest daughter, Princess Ubol Ratana felt much the same.

Princess Ubol Ratana is the eldest daughter of HM King Bhumipol Adulyadej and HM Queen Sirikit of Thailand . Out of the couple’s four children, she perhaps has the most unusual story to tell. Princess Ubol Ratana was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1951. All of the four royal children are bright and each academic in their own way.

After finishing her schooling, the Princess began study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at the University of California. At M.I.T., she first met the man she would marry, Mr Peter Ladd Jensen.

What controversy the relationship caused within the family is hard to gauge. It is illegal to criticise the Thai Royal Family and information on their personal lives, is hard to find. But, it seems unlikely, at least in the 1970’s, that marriage to a non-Thai westerner would have been the first choice of a son-in-law for eldest daughter of the King and Queen.

When the couple married in1972, Princess Ubol Ratana relinquished her title and settled permanently in the United States with her husband. She seemed content with this decision but how she found life as a housewife, far removed from her life as a princess has not been recorded. The couple was busy with their respective careers in the early years of their life together but after a few years, rumours began to spread about the state of their marriage and the happiness of the couple.

Their first child, a girl, Khun Ploypailin was born in 1981, followed by a son, Khun Bhumi in 1983 and another girl, Khun Sirikittiya in 1985. It would be Khun Bhumi who would have the greatest effect and challenge on the Princess’s life.

Khun Bhumi was born with autism and like any parents with a child afflicted by the syndrome, the Princess and her husband worked intensively to help bring Khun Bhumi out of his own world. The Princess was open about her son’s condition and did much to raise awareness about autism over the years.

The Princess’s marriage deteriorated in the early 1980’s and she eventually divorced Peter Jensen. The break up was not amicable and Mr Jensen challenged the Princess’s decision to take Khun Bhumi back to Thailand , where she intended to resettle. Mr Jensen argued that Khun Bhumi would benefit more from living in the United States with all that country's support facilities for autism, however the Court ruled that given the Princess’s extraordinary family, Khun Bhumi would get the best help available to him in Thailand.

Her son’s autism improved as he grew. He attended school and later university where he majored in physical education. The Princess, as pictures show of the two together, was very proud of Khun Bhumi's achievements.

When Princess Ubol Ratana returned to Thailand in 1998, she began semi-official duties. While not a Royal Highness, the princess has taken on the unusual, although unofficial, title of ‘public relations princess’. She devotes much of her time to her anti drugs project, ‘To Be Number One’ and travels the country promoting public awareness.

At the end of last year, the Princess took Khun Bhumi and her youngest daughter to Khao Lak for a vacation. Khun Bhumi was sports mad and on that fateful day had been jet skiing with his bodyguards.

It has been reported that when the wave struck, Khun Bhumi was still in the water but the Princess has said publicly that he had finished and was just about to make his way from the beach.

The Princess and her daughter were in their hotel room when a frantic knock at the door alerted her that something was not right. Opening the door, she was told of the imminent danger and she, her daughter and their guards ran from the hotel.

They spotted a multi-storey building and got to the fourth floor when the wave hit, completely swamping the entire three floors below.

When the waves subsided, she began a frantic search for her son. The two bodyguards who had been with him survived and the Princess believed that as her son was making his way from the beach when the Tsunami hit, that like his guards she would find him somewhere.

Her bodyguards insisted that she go to Phuket and await news, which she did. She then allowed her helicopter to ferry injured people to and form Khao Lak and helped look after others in the aftermath of the wave. As the hours wore on, no news arrived about her son.

Her brother Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn rushed to Phuket to help the Princess and together they went back to Khao Lak to continue the search. They looked through the night for Khun Bhumi, finally finding his body early the next morning, a hundred metres away from their hotel.

Princess Ubol Ratana immediately flew back to Bangkok with the body of her son in what was their last journey together. Her ex husband and their eldest daughter made their way from San Diego , while the world tried to come to terms with the extent of the disaster.

In a grandfatherly gesture, King Bhumipol granted Khun Bhumi a royal funeral, which was attended by the royal family. Princess Ubol Ratana was visibly deeply upset throughout the ceremony.

It was a week the world will never forget. Thousands of stories of human kindness come out of the disaster, including accounts from tourists assisted by Princess Ubol Ratana, at a time when worry over Khun Bhumi must have been all consuming. Perhaps to some extent one’s grief in such a circumstance is somehow made more bearable knowing that so many experience the same sense of loss. It might also explain Princess Ubol Ratana’s public presence only a couple of weeks after saying goodbye to her son.

Link to letter from Khun Bhumi's sister Khun Ploypailin Jensen on behalf of the Red Cross: http://www.redcross.or.th/article/ploy.htm

- Gioffredo Godenzi
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