A sociological reading of Thailand's monarchistic legacy is employed to identify cultural themes and practices of nation construction. It is demonstrated how, after the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, royalist networks of Thailand's first constitutional king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, reinforced the staying power of his rule and the institution of constitutional monarchy with primordial themes. The themes functioned to sacralise the nation as rooted in a glorious past as well as legitimise the king's place and continued relevance in Thai politics. Within this context, primordial simulacra derived from the Siamese empire, Buddhism and rekindled royal ceremonies from antiquity were reassembled for nationalistic purposes. As a result, the sacralising of the Thai nation has rendered the king a sacred nationalist, a type of nationalist that synchronises the real and ethereal to construct nation, a process that elevated the country's traditional authority system to respond to the undesirable consequences of twentieth century modernisation.
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Jack Fong (2009) studied this question.
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