With an Army of Sex Soldiers, a Thai King Makes His Great Escape.
King Rama X turned his royal consorts into a militarized force and fled the country for Germany. But in the midst of a pandemic and intensifying unrest at home, how long can pleasure win out?
Maha Vajiralongkorn, the 68-year-old king of Thailand, better known as Rama X, sits atop both a throne and the upper-most floor of a luxury hotel in a tiny ski village in the alpine regions of Germany. He fled there back in April. It’s his quarantine pad. (The king was granted a special dispensation by local German authorities that allowed the hotel to remain open, since all others in the town are closed due to COVID.) And because he’s royalty, he’s brought a private army with him. But this army is no conventional fighting force. It’s a unit of 20 “sex soldiers.” They’ve been given the honorary title of “Sirivajirabhakdi,” which means “The Beautiful One Who Will Be Faithful to the King,” per Max Boddeker, a reporter at the German newspaper Bild.
For the women called to serve their king, it’s both an honor and a privilege. Yet, in a society where women are subservient to men, honorable exploitation doesn’t seem all that honorable, just exploitative. As journalist and Thailand expert, Andrew MacGregor Marshall explains, “The concubines make a big gamble — with the hope of winning big. Some
are happy to join and are hoping for riches and success for themselves and their families. … Others give in to the king’s pressure to join over fear of the consequences if they refuse.”
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