Historian Tamara Loos Interviewed on NPR About the Thai Palace Officials Ousted Following Demotion Of Royal Consort

NPR's David Greene talks to Cornell University professor Tamara Loos about palace officials in Thailand, who were fired for disloyalty to the crown — just days after the royal consort was banished.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Thailand. We're following a royal scandal that really seems more appropriate for a TV mini-series than real life. King Vajiralongkorn brought back an old tradition and appointed a royal consort for himself - a woman - in the palace in addition to the queen. And then just months later, he stripped her of her title, calling her too ambitious and disloyal. I'll let Cornell University professor Tamara Loos take it from here. She focuses on Southeast Asia.

TAMARA LOOS: The king's consort was a woman named Sineenat, and she had been appointed the first royal noble consort since the 1920s.

GREENE: And in theory, also in a relationship with the king? Is that what we assume?

LOOS: Of course. Yes.

GREENE: You're a history professor. Having a consort and then stripping her of her duties for misbehaving - I mean, this sounds like the kind of stuff that belongs in history.

LOOS: It's a stunning moment in Thai history. I will say that. One of the things I find very interesting about his appointment of her and then less than two months later - about two months later - his demotion of her is just how public that appointment and demotion was. Kind of is making a statement about not just supporting an outdated form of marriage, but he's supporting one that values inequality and hierarchy. Those are values that don't align with the notions of human rights and democracy.