Rama II

Rama II reigned over the recovery of Siamese literature after the destruction of Ayutthaya, wrote much of it himself, and is the reason the Ramakien exists in a performable form. He was born Phutthaloetla Naphalai, a son of Rama I, and came to the throne in 1809 at the head of a dynasty then only twenty-seven years old and still consolidating after the Burmese sack of the old capital in 1767. His reign was largely peaceful: a Burmese attempt on the southern provinces in 1809 was beaten off, Kedah and the Lao states were held as tributaries, and Cambodia was contested with Vietnam without open war. He restored relations with China and sent tribute missions, and reopened limited contact with the West, receiving a Portuguese envoy in 1818 and John Crawfurd for the East India Company in 1822 without conceding a treaty. He banned the import of opium in 1811, the first Siamese law on it. He is remembered above all for the literary and artistic revival he led personally: he composed and edited the court version of the Ramakien and of Inao, wrote poetry that Thai schoolchildren still learn, played the saw sam sai, and carved the doors of Wat Suthat with his own hands. He rebuilt and expanded temples in Bangkok, including Wat Arun. He is said to have fathered seventy-three children. He died without naming an heir, and the council passed over the son by his queen, later Mongkut, in favour of an elder half-brother. He sent an expedition to reopen relations with Portugal through Macau. His white elephants, of which he acquired three, gave Siam the flag it used until 1917. His reign is conventionally called the golden age of Rattanakosin literature.

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