Sadudee Maharacha

Dedication to His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej In putting together my collection of Poems in Praise of the late Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great, my effort is to perpetuate the late Monarch’s greatness which appropriately is adulated by the Thai salutation ”Sadudee Maharacha” in a song which is sung typically at times when the King is praised, more especially at His Birthday Anniversaries and on momentous occasions of special anniversaries marking His many accomplishments over the past 70 years. Having lived in Thailand since 1989 as Lecturer at Assumption University of Thailand, it did not take me long to witness the special love of the Thai people for their King. Early in 1990 I posed a question to the then Rector of Assumption University, Rev. Brother Martin as to why the Thai people loved the King so much. In his typical alluring philosophical way, Brother Martin merely smiled and told me that it was really hard to answer my question, for he said, “how can I estimate or even measure the depth of the love of the Thai people for our King?” He nevertheless encouraged me to discover what I could, or should, through my own discernment through seeing, hearing, feeling the love of the King for His people. Encouraged by Thailand’s leading Catholic Philosopher, Professor Kirti Bunchua, I embarked on the journey of discovery through first reading a book in English, currently held in the Brother Martin’s Collection at the University Library on Tossapit Rajatham, or the King’s Tenfold Moral Code. The book is an encoding of the traditions and history of the Tossapit Rajatham, but it is also what I call the Thai Philosopher’s stone on the Royal Traditions which has become so well exemplified by the life of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej whose life in its transparence of goodness, good governance, hard work and ingenious creativity has shone on His people since he ascended the Throne of Chakri on June 9, 1946 at 9 p.m. More than the intellectual impact of my first perusal of the traditions and emanations of The Moral King I had come to know through living, reading and witnessing from the