When I was a little girl, I loved fairy tales about a handsome prince and a beautiful princess falling in love and living happily ever after. In fairy tales, kings and queens live luxury lives in castles. That didn't happen in Thailand throughout the 89-year lifetime of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away last year.
I stopped spending money extravagantly a few years ago because I regard King Bhumibol as a role model for living a modest yet fruitful life. The king could have lived lavishly, but he chose to work tirelessly for the benefit of his people and country. His Chitralada Palace is home to experimental rice fields, fish ponds, rice mills, dairy farms, processing plants and an organic fertiliser factory that were part of his research and development efforts to help improve the well-being of his subjects.
King Bhumibol had lived a simple life since his youth because the Princess Mother instilled a good conscience and understanding of life in her three children. She taught them to do good, be highly responsible and thrifty and to love to study, share and help other people.
HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, King Bhumibol's elder sister, once said the Princess Mother weekly gave her children "pocket money" that was just enough for buying candies or chocolate. If they wanted other books and toys other than what given by her to them twice a year -- on the New Year's Day and their birthdays -- they had to save money to buy those things.
When King Bhumibol was still a little prince and wanted a bicycle, his mother encouraged him to put one or two francs a day in a piggy bank. On a New Year's Day, she told him to count the money from the piggy bank, giving him the rest so he could buy the bicycle.
In Switzerland, Prince Bhumibol learned to play brass instruments and the piano first and purchased his first instrument -- a clarinet -- with his own savings at the age of 10. At the age of around 14-15, he took musical lessons more seriously and bought a used saxophone for 300 Swiss francs. Though the little prince received weekly allowances, he worked for his mother by growing and picking vegetables.
The Princess Mother taught her children to be givers by providing a special piggy bank for them to save money and donate 10% of the total amount to schools for the blind, orphanages or charity activities for the underprivileged at the end of each month.
Even after he was crowned king, King Bhumibol continued his modest lifestyle. For instance, he didn't wear expensive clothes, shoes and wristwatches. He usually wore his apparel for five to six years and sometimes up to 12 years. He would repair his old shoes instead of buying new ones. The Kor Premsilp shoe shop near the Phichai Intersection in Bangkok had opportunities to repair King Bhumibol's shoes for decades. Most of those shoes were worn or torn from years of usage while one was bitten by the king's pet dog. The king squeezed every tube of toothpaste until it became as flat as a piece of paper. He utilised only 12 pencils a year and kept using them until they became little nubs. His essential items for work were pencils, maps, communication radios and cameras.
Since the passing of King Rama IX, many Thais have promised to follow his footsteps by doing good and adhering to his principles. One of the late king's well-known principles is the Principle of Sufficiency. In 1974, he delivered a birthday speech: "Let other people say what they want. They may say Thailand is old-fashioned, or Thailand is not modern. But we live sufficiently and I hope everyone has the wish to make Thailand a sufficient place. We may not prosper splendidly, but we live in sufficiency and peace compared to other countries. If we maintain this state of sufficiency, we may soon prosper splendidly."
In 1998, King Bhumibol remarked on his birthday: "The word 'self-sufficient' has a broader meaning, which is 'feeling your life is good enough'. If people feel their lives are good enough, they have little greed. When they have little greed, they do not cause grievances to other people … If people adhere to the principle of self-sufficiency -- living in moderation, being honest and not greedy -- they live happily. If they are well-off, they can have luxuries, but must not cause grievance to others."
King Bhumibol used the phrase "sufficiency economy" for the first time in 1997, when Thailand experienced an economic crisis. This was part of his speech: "It is not important to become an economic tiger. What matters is for us to have a sufficiency economy. Sufficiency means self-supporting or having enough for ourselves."
In brief, to live according to the self-sufficiency principle is to be thrifty, cut unnecessary expenses, earn a decent and honest living, refrain from fierce competition, keep learning and working, live decent lives and refrain from bad deeds.
After all, his compassion and selfless devotion to his country and people are the reasons the Thai people love King Bhumibol from the bottom of their hearts always and forever.
Pichaya Svasti is the travel writer of the Life section of the Bangkok Post.