Happy Birthday | Bangkok Post: learning

Mainly for kids

In honour of His Majesty's 83rd birthday, we are featuring a series of short, easy stories about the Thai King written for children. The first three parts have now been posted.

Click button to listen to Early years and rightclick to download

The early years

Prince Mahidol and his young son

All children in Thailand know their country has a King. His name is King Bhumibol Adulyadej and he has ruled Thailand for more than sixty years. Every year there are many days of celebrations before and after December 5th which, of course, is His Majesty the King's birthday. This year we are celebrating his 83rd birthday.

Many of the visitors to this website come from other countries, so they may not know very much about Thailand's King. Let's tell them a little about him, OK?

His Majesty the King was born in 1927. He wasn't born in Thailand, however. He was born in the United States where his father, Prince Mahidol, was studying at Harvard University. Unfortunately, little Prince Bhumibol never really got to know his father because he died when he was only two years old. Thus, the young Prince grew up with HRH the

The royal family

Princess Mother, his older sister Princess Galyani and his older brother King Ananda.

The family lived most of the time in Switzerland where the children went to school. Both Prince Bhumibol and his brother the King enjoyed their long stay in Switzerland. They were treated as normal children. They had regular jobs to do at home and when they wanted toys, they had to earn money to pay for them.

Below are some photos of Prince Bhumibol when he was a child.

You can read part two of the story here: http://bit.ly/fbNK0M .

You can read part three of the story here: http://bit.ly/gTiKOl

celebrate – to show that a day or an event is important by doing something special on it  เฉลิมฉลอง
celebration – a special event that people organize in order to celebrate something การเฉลิมฉลอง
treat – to behave in a particular way towards somebody/something เลี้ยงดู
normal – typical, usual or ordinary ธรรมดา

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