Parnreutai Chaiyasat Bangkok, Thailand   King Mongkut. In John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, with a foreword by King Mongkut, 1857. Via Chetham’s Library. King Mongkut,1 the second son of King Rama II of Siam (now known as Thailand),2 spent most of his life in scholarship as a Buddhist monk before ascending to…