First of all, let me tell you what the king said. On the day that the king was crowned, more than 60 years ago, the king said, "We will reign with righteousness. For the benefit of the Siamese people". He keeps his promise throughout his reign.
Second of all, having been on the throne for more than 60 years, the king has helped and supported a lot of poor people in Thailand, especially, the farmers and the ethnic minorities living in the mountainous areas. The major example of his works is the royal initiated projects, more than 4200 of which have been launched throughout the country to make sure that his children can rely on themselves.
For example, he turned the opium farming
areas at the Golden Triangle, the border of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, to be cultivation areas for crops from cold countries.
Back to 45 years ago, the king and his family visited the Golden Triangle. He saw hundreds of fields filled with the opium. He did not ask the authorities to arrest the minorities because he did not want to scare them and push them to join with communism which was strongly influenced to many countries in Asia from China. Besides, those people were not authorized to have Thai nationality yet. Therefore, it was very difficult to communicate with them and make them understand the consequences of opium to the society.
On the opposite, he just asked the question "How much do you earn from growing the opium"? They replied "the money that we earn is of the same amount as when we grow the Chinese plum".
Afterwards, the king decided to set up the research center at the Golden Triangle to experiment many kinds of crops and fruits that suit with the weather.
The outcome was very satisfactory. Different types of fruits and plants were introduced to those minorities with the technical supports to them together with the marketing strategy.
Life of the ethnic minorities started better after they decided not to grow opium and turn to follow the king's suggestions.
These days, the Golden Triangle is the area which produces a lot of vegetables and fruits to supply the markets under the brand "Doi Kam". At the moment, there are many shops under the name Doi Kam selling various kinds of products from Golden Triangle and other mountainous areas in the north of Thailand.
In addition, one of which that the king did for the farmers was to introduce them the idea "Self-sufficient economy".
Years ago, the farmers relied very much on government. The king taught them to rely on themselves. Self-sufficient economy is to teach them to manage their lands into 4 main parts; housing 10%, farming area 30%, pond 30% and livestock 30%. It means that the farmers can
manage all necessary factors of their lives in just one place.
This project went well and is still being practiced widely among the farmers.
These are just a few samples of his thousand royal initiated projects.
Now you can see why people of Thailand love their king. What our king does is to do what he said more than 60 years ago "We will reign with righteousness. For the benefit of the Siam people.
