In 2014, when the 86-year-old Thai King Bhumibol died, the Thai royal family suddenly exposed a shocking scandalous video: Crown Princess Monsilami lay naked on the ground, celebrating and feeding her dog.
The video quickly spread around the world, causing outrage among the Thai public, and the succession of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn was once again questioned.
However, this was only the beginning, and a series of royal scandals such as the corruption and imprisonment of many members of the Monsilami family and the appearance of Vajiralongkorn's underground lover surfaced.
In the end, Monsilami, who became the target of everyone, had to take the initiative to apply for the revocation of the title of crown princess and escaped into the empty door.
The farce of the Vajiralongkorns seems to have come to an end, but if you look beyond the incident itself and combine it with the current situation of the Thai royal family, it will be found that this matter is far from being as simple as a scandal case.
Crown Princess scandal
Monsilami, a typical example of the Thai civilian class flying up the branches to become phoenixes.
Born in 1971, she was admitted to the Bangkok Business College at the age of 22 and successfully entered the Thai royal family to become the handmaiden of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn.
Vajiralongkorn was born in 1952 in Bangkok, Thailand, and was expected to be the parents of the king and queen.
He went to Sussex in the United Kingdom, Somerset in England, Sydney, Canberra and other places to study, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.
He has also received rigorous military training and holds a jet fighter license, and can fly F-5, F-16 fighter jets and Boeing passenger aircraft.
In terms of personal abilities and talents, Vajiralongkorn never seemed to disappoint the king.
In 1972, Vajiralongkorn was officially crowned prince, and Bhumibol was relieved to hand over some of his government affairs to him.
However, when it comes to personal feelings, Vajiralongkorn always worries Bhumibol and the entire royal family.
Vajiralongkorn married the daughter of a Thai nobleman in 1977 and had a daughter.
The marriage lasted until 1980, after which Vajiralongkorn fell in love with Thai actress Yuwatida, and the two lived together in the royal palace for many years without a marriage license.
It was not until 1994 that the two became legally married but the marriage lasted only two years.
Later, Vajiralongkorn met Monsilami, who was 19 years younger than himself.
During Monsilami's service to Vajiralongkorn, how the two gradually developed from acquaintance and acquaintance to a lover relationship is unknown to the outside world.
The only certainty is that the two officially cohabited in Nonthaburi, the Crown Prince's residence, since February 2001.
On February 14, 2005, the news that Monsilami was pregnant with the crown prince's child was exposed, and the two had to marry their son.
For Monsilami, this is undoubtedly a great joy to fly on a branch and become a phoenix.
However, considering the experience of Vajiralongkorn, the outside world has never been optimistic about the marriage of the two.
At the end of 2014, seeing that the old king Bhumibol was dying, Monsilami was only one step away from becoming queen.
But at such a critical moment, a video of the scandal about Monsilami spread around the world.
The video was shot in 2009, and the picture shows Monsilami wearing only a poorly dressed bikini, lying on her side almost naked, happily holding a piece of cake to feed her dog.
It is reported that that day is the birthday of the Vajiralongkorn couple raising their dog "Fufu".
Afterwards, Monsilami was revealed to have worked as a stripper in Thailand's red light district.
If it were such a disclosure alone, Monsilami would have a way to deny it, but the video of feeding dogs naked at home has just spread all over the Internet, and no matter how she explains it, she can't clear the suspicion.
As the crown princess and future queen of Thailand, such an act has naturally aroused the dissatisfaction and accusations of the Thai people.
At the same time, Vajiralongkorn's ability to succeed to the throne in the future has been questioned.
In fact, this is not the first time Vajiralongkorn has come under fire.
A few months before the video was exposed, British media also exposed another video of the Thai crown prince and his wife.
At that time, the Thai army attacked the royal family, and the military coup was chosen above Bhumibol like a sharp sword.
However, Vajiralongkorn took the princess and dozens of retinues to Britain to party all night in a five-star hotel, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the Thai government.
The matter is far from over, and at the same time that the Vajiralongkorns were scolded in the headlines by the Thai people, Monsilami's relatives were also thrown into prison on suspicion of embezzlement, insulting the king and other serious crimes.
It is reported that since Monsilami became the crown princess, her mother's family received the royal surname given by Bhumibol, and then entered Thai high society.
However, in the more than ten days since the Monsilami scandal was exposed, seven members of her family were imprisoned, including her uncle Pombo, who is the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Pombo's charge was "expiry monarch," a charge that included defamation, insult, and intimidation of the king, up to 15 years in prison.
In addition, Pombo was also charged by the police with smuggling, gambling, embezzlement and other crimes.
Following Pombo's fall in the Thai government's anti-corruption storm, Monsilami's three brothers were also soon arrested.
Two of them were staff members of the Royal Thai Command and one was a government official.
Pon Bo's sister and husband were also doomed and were suspended and imprisoned.
Monsilami was forced to become a monk
The royal scandals were exposed one after another, and Monsilami became the target of public criticism for a while because he was involved in all the incidents.
The police revealed that Monsilami's relatives committed crimes such as smuggling, gambling, and illegal oil trading, involving up to 1 billion baht, and a large amount of evidence was found in Bangkok and other places.
After the news broke, criticism in Thai society became more and more popular, and Vajiralongkorn could not escape criticism.
Desperate, Vajiralongkorn could only issue a statement to the outside world saying that he would strip the crown princess of her family name.
Monsilami was even more overwhelmed and took the initiative to apply to Bhumibol to surrender the title of crown princess.
At the end of December 2014, Monsilami's application was approved, her status as crown princess was officially stripped, and her dream of being empress was shattered.
On the evening news that day, Monsilami's photo quietly disappeared from the photo display of the Thai royal family.
Soon after the royal celebration, Monsilami did not show up.
However, in the royal announcement, she is still referred to as Vajiralongkorn's wife.
For a time, the outside world once suspected that Vajiralongkorn still had the idea of retaining Monsilami's identity.
However, as a strange woman began to appear frequently at Vajiralongkorn's side, the last suspicions of others dissipated.
All indications are that Vajiralongkorn's marriage to Monsilami has come to an end.
Sure enough, soon after, their marriage quietly ended.
And Monsilami, who did not have the title of crown princess, had to kneel when he met Vajiralongkorn, even if he saw his son.
The blows that came in finally broke Monsilami's psychology, perhaps unwilling to face everything in the world, or perhaps in order to avoid accusations and accusations from the outside world, she chose to cut her hair and retreat into the empty door.
Vajiralongkorn, on the other hand, does not seem to be in trouble because of this, and there are even rumors that his new love has long been waiting for him in Germany and gave birth to a boy for him.
As for the children born to Vajiralongkorn and Monsilami, they will not be future candidates for crown prince.
The scandalous farce between the crown prince and the crown princess seems to have come to an end, but is the chain of events against Monsilami really all accidents?
Thinking beyond Monsilami's experience itself, looking at this series of changes from the overall situation, it is not difficult to find that behind this is by no means as simple as it seems.
The series of incidents in which the Monsilami video was exposed and relatives were arrested one after another is too coincidental to make people suspect that this was intentional.
And if it is really someone with ulterior motives who stabbed in the back, then who would this person be?
Soon, a Thai scholar from Japan, Bavin, gave his own judgment: Vajiralongkorn.
Behind the Crown Prince's farce
This view may seem absurd, but if you dig deeper, you will find that it makes sense.
Judging from Vajiralongkorn's motives, he did have good reasons to do something to Monsilami.
Because Monsilami's identity has been a stumbling block to Vajiralongkorn's rise to power, Bavin is even more blunt: this is part of Vajiralongkorn's removal of obstacles in preparation for the succession to the throne.
Although Monsilami was favored by Vajiralongkorn, her origins and undignified past were stains that could never be erased, which is why members of the Thai royal family never really accepted her.
Vajiralongkorn, as the party concerned, naturally knows all this, and if he wants to inherit the throne safely, kicking Mensilami away seems to be the best choice.
Consolidating his throne with someone who is not acceptable to the royal family in exchange for the support of the Thai elite is a sure-money deal for Vajiralongkorn.
Therefore, Vajiralongkorn would rather bear the reputation of treachery and arrogance than abandon Vajiralongkorn.
Of course, these are only speculations about Vajiralongkorn.
As for the truth of what happened to Monsilami, the outside world has no way of knowing.
But Vajiralongkorn abandoned his second wife in a similar way as early as 1996.
The latter was accused of adultery with others and left Thailand in ashes.
With such a precedent, it is hard not to suspect that Vajiralongkorn is behind the kick that opened Monsilami.
Especially at the critical juncture when the old king Bhumibol was running out of oil and running out, it was a good time for Vajiralongkorn to take over the royal power, and how could he tolerate accidents on his way to the throne.
After all, Vajiralongkorn is different from Bhumibol.
The latter is the "god" in the minds of the Thai people, and as a crown prince, he is far less influential and appealing than his father.
Bhumibol is the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history, and during his reign, he led Thailand through crises after crisis, loved by almost all Thais, and even revered as the "Father of Thailand".
It is true that Vajiralongkorn is not an outstanding young man.
But because he transcended the traditional way of life, he gradually broke away from Thailand's traditional elite, which included members of the royal family, the military, and government bureaucrats.
Bhumibol has the moral authority and historical achievements to support his monarchy, and he is himself from the military, and the traditional elite will naturally stand behind him.
But Vajiralongkorn has never been liked by the traditional elite, firstly because his own value orientation is inconsistent with the traditional elite, and secondly, because his indulging and arrogant and debauchery behavior is not welcomed.
Traditional elites have long sought to maintain Bhumibol's rule and thus protect their interests.
But Bhumibol is already close to 90 years old and incapacitated, which can't help but make the outside world worry about the future heir of the Thai royal family.
As a result, the traditional elite generally preferred to support Princess Sirindhorn to the throne, bypassing Vajiralongkorn, the crown prince.
Vajiralongkorn apparently realized that something was wrong, so he did not hesitate to form an alliance with the populist leader and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin's successive successive successes in government elections briefly gave Vajiralongkorn confidence, but with his ouster after a military coup, Vajiralongkorn was once again alone.
Desperate, he can only try to make overtures to the traditional elite, and Monsilami, who cannot integrate into the royal family, kicks away, which is not a sign of his softness to the royal family.
After all, despite Thailand's constitutional monarchy, the royal family still holds huge political assets.
On October 13, 2016, Bhumibol languished in his hospital bed for two years before finally passing away at the age of 89.
On December 1 of the same year, Vajiralongkorn completed his enthronement ceremony in Bangkok and became the new monarch of Thailand.
I just don't know if there is a credit to Monsilami behind the coronation of Vajiralongkorn.
Soon, Vajiralongkorn had a new spouse - Suthida.
She is a goddess from the Thai royal family, and her status and birth experience are a perfect match for Vajiralongkorn.
In May 2019, Suthida was canonized as Queen of Thailand.
It is worth mentioning that just two months after Suthida's seal, Vajiralongkorn took a fancy to a young female major general from the royal guard and made her a "noble concubine".
Vajiralongkorn's behavior not only shows his character, but also acknowledges Thailand's "polygamy" in disguise.
epilogue
Monsilami lies naked on the ground feeding his dog, which is naturally indecent.
She ended up in a ruined end because of this incident, and a large part of it was due to her own self-inflicted suffering.
But compared to what Monsilami did, Vajiralongkorn's suspected behavior of pushing his wife away with his own hands just to succeed in ascending to the throne seemed more unacceptable.
However, it is now impossible to find out what the truth of the matter is.
I only hope that Mengsilami, accompanied by the Green Lantern Ancient Buddha, can come out of the shadows as soon as possible and return to a normal life.