King Taksin the great, the only king of the Thonburi Period

One day I looked on the internet and I found interesting information about King Taksin about is he really insane or he just pretended to be insane.



The information about the history of King Taksin that I want to share to you today is not like what we have studied before. It is about the insanity of King Taksin the great that he is really insane or not.


What we have learned about King Taksin in the history class is King Taksin was born in 1733 in the reign of King Borommakot of Ayutthaya. His father was a Chinese named Haihong, who had immigrated to Thailand and worked as a tax-collector. The King's mother was a Thai called Nok Lang.

After the Second Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, King Taksin the Great who, after a few years, gathered together enough forces to defeat the Burmese and set up the Kingdom of Thonburi as the new capital, as the city Ayutthaya has been almost completely destroyed by the invaders.

After taking the throne King Taksin became deranged. He started to become a religious fanatic, claiming that he was the Buddha, expecting to change the colour of his blood from red to white. As he started practicing meditation, he even gave lecture to the monks. Sometimes he flogged monks who refused to worship him.

King Taksin was said insane. The disturbance widely spread. Killing and looting were everywhere. People all over the kingdom were suffering. Thus a coup d'état removed him from the throne consequently took place.

Chao Phaya Chakri had returned from a campaign against the Khmer when officials urged him to depose HM Taksin and ascend to the throne himself.



A council declared that HM Tak Sin had to be executed in the prescribed manner for royalty. No royal blood could be shed. So the condemned King was put in a silk bag and beaten with sandalwood clubs.

The information above is what we have studied and known about King Taksin from the history class. And now I want to share some information about King Taksin that I have found on the internet that so much different from what we have learnt before.

This information claims that King Taksin was not really insane. He just pretended that he is insane. And actually he was a royal blood too. He was not a son of a Chinese father, but also the son of King Borommakot of Ayutthaya.

His mother was the secret wife of King Borommakot, who was a Chinese people, named haihong. His mother was afraid that if there was anybody knew this secret, it meant her son life. So she decided to lie to his son and everyone that King Taksin was a son of a Chinese father, named Haihong. And she also told King Taksin that his mother was a Thai people, named nok-lang.

The reason that he pretended that he was insane is After King Taksin established Thonburi as his capital, people were living in abject poverty, and food and clothing were scarce. He considered solving economic problems as the main priority. He paid high prices for rice from his own money to induce foreign traders to bring in adequate amounts of basic necessities to satisfy the need of the people.

King Taksin at that time did an agreement with china. So Thailand at that time owed China for millions of baht. He also had no way to settle his debts with the mercenary armies. In order to cancel the agreement between China, King Taksin pretended to be insane.

In the execution, someone was substituted for King Taksin in the silk bag. And afterwards, Taksin was secreted away from Thonburi and to the south where he spent the rest of his life as a monk.