Word: siam
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Westernization was brought to Siam largely by her own people who went abroad to study. In the 19203 a group of young Siamese revolutionists formed in Paris' Left Bank cafes. Two of them were Pridhi Banomyong and Phibun Songgram, who were to become rivals and to alternate in control of modern Siam. The revolutionists returned in 1932 to stage a coup which made Siam a constitutional monarchy. King Prajadhipok ceased to be the last absolute monarch left in the world...
...Phumiphon went home to Siam with his brother. Ananda, Siamese remember, was a strange young King. Full of Western ideas, he refused to talk to visitors who sat on the floor below _ him Siamese fashion, insisting that they sit on chairs level with himself. Since shyness is a Siamese characteristic, the visitors often found themselves unable to talk in such a presumptuous position; King and subject would sit in silence, both blushing. Siamese tell of Ananda's visits to little villages near Bangkok. He would summon up all his courage, walk up to an old woman and ask, "Grandmother...
...event is said to have marked the birth of public opinion in Siam. Up to that point the people had not approved or disapproved of public events; almost everybody disapproved of the death of Ananda. Murder was whispered, then shouted. A cabinet fell. An inquiry commission decided that Ananda had been shot either by-himself or somebody else. A trial began more than a year ago and is expected to last ten years more...
Batches of astrologers operate about the Grand Palace every day, telling fortunes for a deal (a deal's a nickel) each, but better-class Siamese consider them quacks. Real astrologers are learned men. members of the Astrological Society of Siam, who usually hold clerks' jobs in government offices by day and practice their profession in their homes at night, for fees up to 100 tics per fortune...
...King chortled the 13th Century Siamese equivalent of "Aha, we got him," and ordered a page to lift the bowl. There lay the mouse, suckling four young. After that, there was no stopping the astrologers. Some, however, think they have gone too far. Siam's most revered astrologer, Phya Hora Thibodi Yarnavej, retired a few years ago with a bitter valedictory...