King Bhumibol Adulyadej (88),  of Thailand, died on Thursday 13^th October, 2016, at the Siriraj Hospital, where he had been treated for various health problem for most of the past decade.

The US born monarch’s reign spanned 70 years, became much more than Thailand’s constitutional head, and used his influence to unify the nation and rally troops through the Cold War as Thailand’s neighbours fell under communist control.  His down-to-earth policies inspired and impoverished villages and remote rice paddies to help resolve everything from water to food shortages and was viewed by many in the Buddhist nation as a bodhis attava.

He played several musical instruments and his favorite was American Jazz greats like Benny Goodman.

Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at more than $30 billion in 2011, and that makes him on e of the world’s richest monarch. His elite living style  with racing yachts clad with ornate golden robes and his regal style is second to none.

He is survived by his son, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, who does not hold his father’s place among Thai masses.

With the demise of Bhumibol Adulyadej, the  world’s longest reigning monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the British throne in 1952.

Bhumibol Adulyahej (poo-me-pon ah-dun-yaa-det) was born Dec 5, 1927, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while his father Prince Mahidol of Songkihla was reading medicine at Harvard University. Bhumibol was crowned in 1946, when his brother, 20-year old King Ananda Mahidol, succumbed to  a gunshot wound, and was named King 12 hours later following an extraordinary legislative session. In 1948, he was seriously injured in a driving accident and Sirikit Kitiy akara, the daughter of a Thai aristocrat and diplomat nursed him back to health and eventually got married in 1950. During his reign they visited 30 countries  and even addressed the US congress when Dwight D Eisenhower was President, dined with French leader Charles de Gaulle and met Elvis Presley in 1960.