Dipangkorn
Dipangkorn ทีปังกร | |||||
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King Rama XI | |||||
King of Thailand | |||||
Reign | 15 February 2022 - 21 February 2022 | ||||
Predecessor | Vajiralongkorn | ||||
Successor | Monarchy abolished Pita Limjaroenrat (as President of Thailand) | ||||
Born | Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand | 29 April 2005||||
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House | Mahidol (Chakri dynasty) | ||||
Father | Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) | ||||
Mother | Srirasmi Suwadee | ||||
Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||
Dipangkorn (Thai: ทีปังกร; RTGS: Thipangkon; born 29 April 2005) was the eleventh and last King of Thailand, reigning from 15 February to 21 February 2022, a period of six days that is the shortest in Thai history.
The son of King Vajiralongkorn and Srirasmi Suwadee, his third legal wife, Dipangkorn was born as his father's fifth son as well as the seventh and youngest overall child. Despite this, following Vajiralongkorn's disowning of his second wife Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, thereby making his four sons by her effectively ineligible for the throne, Dipangkorn became the king's only recognised son although not necessarily the heir apparent.
Long rumoured to have had a developmental disorder, on 15 February 2022, following his father's abdication as a result of the 2022 Thai Revolution, Dipangkorn ascended to the throne as Rama XI, temporarily becoming the world's youngest reigning monarch and the youngest serving state leader. However, on 21 February 2022, after just six days on the throne, a nationwide referendum saw Thailand officially abolish the monarchy and proclaim a republic in its place, effectively ending the country's centuries old monarchy. Beforehand, Prajadhipok, who reigned from 1925 to 1935, oversaw the country's transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy although the monarchy still retains considerable power to a certain extent.
Along with his father and his stepmothers Queen Suthida and Sineenat, Dipangkorn fled to China in the wake of the monarchy's abolition and has since resided in the country in exile after President Xi Jinping granted the family political asylum. Currently, his father remains wanted by the Thai republican government, having previously been sentenced in absentia for crimes against humanity and other offences.