Thai Royalty

This is not something I make a habit of talking about unless it some how comes up in conversation. I don’t feel the need to boast about it to people that I’ve just met, or even friends I’ve known for a couple years. Of course, I say that at the beginning of a blog post that literally anyone could happen across. But I’m only doing that because Austin and I thought it would be funny. So yeah. I am a Thai Princess.

I am directly descended from Kings Mongkut and Chulalongkorn. King Mongkut was my great great great great grandfather and King Chulalongkorn was my great great great grandfather. These are both people that we read about in our World History textbooks. That was a crazy experience let me tell you. We also watched The King and I in world history, which showed my great great great great grandpa and his many many wives.

My great great grandfather was Prince Rangsit. He was the fifty-second son of Chulalongkorn and was born to one of Chulalongkorns minor wives. Funnily enough though, his mom died and he was adopted by Chulalongkorns main wife. As a result, he grew up very close to the heir to the thrown. He and Prince Mahidol were very close friends growing up, and Prince Rangsit played a very important role in the transitory phase from the time his younger half brother abdicated the throne to his nephews coronation. Additionally after the mysterious death of one of the nephew’s in the Grand Palace, Prince Rangsit was appointed Regent of Thailand until the younger nephew was old enough to take over the throne.

Prince Rangsit had three children. One boy and two girls. The most important of the three, in my opinion, was the youngest, Princess Charulaksana Kalyani Rangsit. Princess Charulaksana, or should I say Omi, was my great grandmother. Unfortunately, near the end of her life she developed Alzheimers, and I was unable to get to know her very well since she died in 2012. From what I do know though, she was pretty cool. She met a common doctor who she fell in love with, and she relinquished her title as princess in order to marry him. They were still incredibly wealthy though, because Prince Rangsit didn’t disown her and her husband was a doctor. Fortunately, before her death my Omi got her title restored and she died as a Princess in the royal family. That being said, my Omi had two children, my grandfather Chamikorn and his brother Chai. They don’t technically have titles though because my Omi was a woman and Thai culture is sexist.

Moving on though, my grampi Chami married my grammie Jane, an American woman from New York, and they had two kids. One of them was my dad and he eventually met my mom and then they had me. And I have to say, the whole “princess” thing is way overrated.

We are still a part of the royal family, and if you were to look in a Thai book with the entire royal family, you would find my mom and dad listed at the end of Prince Rangsit’s family branch. We have this book at our house. Unfortunately, it’s the edition that came out a few years before either Carter or I were born, so our names aren’t there, but my parents and my aunt and uncles are.

But honestly, besides getting our names written in the book, I don’t get much from being a part of the royal family. Besides, there are probably a whole lot of people who could trace their family lines back to King Mongkut or King Chulalongkorn because combined they had about 100 wives each. I’m not kidding. King Mongkut had 62 wives, you can look it up. There are a few benefits though.

For one, I can get a Thai citizenship pretty easily. I’m going to go become a citizen over winter break actually, so that’s pretty cool. We also own some land over in Thailand and we have a driver for some reason. I don’t know why. Our family is hardly ever there. The members of the royal family are also automatic members of the royal yacht club. But that pretty much means nothing for me, since I am a woman. I can’t even step on the premises without a male escort. My brother has to go in with me in order for me to be “allowed” there. So that’s obnoxious. We also have shirts with the family crest on them, and if we wear them it lets people know which branch of the family we’re from. That’s also cool, except why would I want an entire city to know I’m royalty. That’s one way to ensure you get robbed or kidnapped.

So I am a Thai Princess. You are all peasants who must obey my every wish. Yeah right. In all honesty it’s a cool fact to be able to share sometimes, but it doesn’t change much about my life. And I can never “sit on the throne” or rule over all my Thai subjects or whatever. I am female. In order for me to rule the king himself would have to say “this female can have my throne” and no king will do that. Besides, the royal family actually has no say in the government or laws. They can sway public opinion, but that’s it. They are figure heads and they have little to no power. Thailand is a super cool place though.