The Feudal Photograph of a Democratic Dhammaraja: Secularism and Sacrality in Thai Royal Imagery

Since the death of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016, his image has continued to play a defining role in the articulation of Thainess (khwampenthai) in reference to the country's "authentic" premodern past and its teleological "progress." This essay addresses several paradoxes in this image and its relationship to Thailand's embattled political history. How might the royal photograph be both sacred and secular? How are premodern understandings of kingship, including the taboo on the monarchy's public representation, reconciled with the contemporary hypervisibility of the monarchy? And what implications do references to the premodern past have for debates over defining democracy in Thailand?