In 1874, a young king faced an assassination plot from within his own palace. But the man who caught the blade wasn't a soldier—he was a royal bodyguard bound by an ancient oath. This episode tells the story of Phra Khom, the legendary guardian of King Chulalongkorn, and the secret society of palace guards who swore to die before their monarch. We trace the origins of Siam's bodyguard tradition back to the Ayutthaya kingdom, explore the sacred tattoos and rituals that made these men fearless, and examine how Chulalongkorn's narrow escape in the Front Palace Crisis reshaped the monarchy. Along the way, we meet figures like Prince Wichaichan, the ambitious 'Second King' who may have orchestrated the plot, and witness the moment when loyalty proved stronger than ambition. For listeners who enjoyed our earlier episodes on Siam's survival against colonialism, this is a deeper look at the human cost of keeping a kingdom intact—the code of honor that protected the man who modernized a nation.
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