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Kukrit Pramoj

Prime Minister of Thailand from 1975 to 1976

  • 10 min read
  • 5 chapters

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Biography

He was born on 20 April 1911 in Sing Buri Province into a cadet branch of the Chakri Dynasty with Chinese ancestry. The son of Brigadier General Prince Khamrob and his wife Daeng (Bunnag), his older brother was M.R. Seni Pramoj while his great-grandmother, Ampha, was of Chinese descent and was a consort of Rama II. He served as a corporal during the Franco-Thai War in 1940. As was common for members of Thailand's upper classes at the time, he was educated abroad; he attended school in England at Trent College, before reading philosophy, politics, and economics at The Queen's College, Oxford.

Upon returning to Thailand, he began his career in banking, but his true vocation was his mastery of many forms of arts, including politics and journalism. Put off by Hollywood's portrayal of King Mongkut in the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam (based on the semi-fictional biographical novel of the same name) Kukrit and his brother, Seni Pramoj, wrote The King of Siam Speaks in 1948. They sent their manuscript to the American politician and diplomat Abbot Low Moffat who drew on it for his biography entitled Mongkut the King of Siam (ISBN 974-8298-12-4), and in 1961, donated the Pramoj manuscript to the Southeast Asian Collection, Asian Division, Library of Congress. He wrote for Siam Rath, the newspaper that he founded.

As a means of showing how Thai society adjusted to life in modern society, in 1953 Kukrit began a series of stories on the life and times of fictional Mae Ploy (Thai: แม่พลอย). who as a young girl enters the service of a princess of Rama V's Royal Household, and dies the same day as Rama VIII. This story was to be one of many that were published in the Kukrit's Siam Rath. His satirical sense and unique sense of humour offered an incisive view of the times Kukrit chronicled. As a scholar, he also wrote many non-fiction works ranging from history and religion to astrology. Most notable are his epics and many short stories portraying various aspects of life and documenting contemporary history. His Many Lives (หลายชีวิต, Lai Chiwit) was also translated into English. He was a leading authority on traditional Thai culture and had a polymathic range of interests from Thailand's classical dance to literature. Most famous for his literary works, he was named a National Artist of Thailand for literature in 1985, the inaugural year for the honour. And he received The Special Commemorative Prize of The Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes in 1990, the inaugural year for the prizes again. His works encompass many subjects from humour to drama. He was also known as a staunch royalist and served the monarchy for his entire life. He is considered one of the great statesmen of Thailand. His former home is now a heritage museum which is preserved; paying homage to his life and Thai traditions.

He was married to M.R. Pakpring Thongyai with whom he had two children, a son and daughter. He died on 9 October 1995.

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