Heart of a Servant: One Man's Journey of Servitude Leading to a Lifetime of Sacrifice, Duty, Honor, and Heroism

By NJ Perez

Heart of a Servant is a story based on true events of how a Chinese-born orphan named Pon K-Manee witnesses the growth of modern Thailand from his days of being a boy servant to the king, until World War II: when he becomes a trusted spy and one of the king's closest confidants. Upon declaring his loyalty at a tender age, despite having been given away to the king by his own parents, Pon must then make crucial decisions that will either bridge the gap between families and cultures, and nations themselves, or that will ultimately incur the destruction of both himself and his heritage. Unknowingly, by choosing the path closest to his own morality, and one he knows his own father would want of him: he helps to change the course of history itself!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781645312420

Book preview

Chapter 1

1886

This is a test—Father is trying to see what kind of a man I would be without him!

The two boys walked me along a wide path built of stone, up toward the largest of the buildings that was central to the palace grounds. I glanced up at passersby, and these men, women, and children all seemed to eye me with a mixture of welcome and anticipation. Some of the adults were dressed casually, with bulky trousers and long pieces of purple, orange, turquoise, red, or blue silk draped in diagonals across their chests; others just had a large rectangular-shaped cloth of similar colors worn around their lower bodies, with many of the men being bare-chested and the women wearing buttoned blouses. The children had this same type of wrap around their waists and were otherwise wearing nothing.

I observed that there were many Buddhists with their shaved heads, and who wore their traditional robes. Some other men were dressed in imperial fashion, making them stand out and giving them a regal appearance; while some were in business coats that went all the way down to their knees, and which were also very colorful. Other men wore military uniforms, and some just had loincloths and were barefoot. Seeing such a wide variety of clothing all in the same place was very odd. It was quite puzzling to me.

I was not in the mood to study the monuments or the structures, or even the trees and plants that grew along the path; even though I suppose it was beautiful, with the flora extending out across the courtyards and plazas in such lengthy pathways between the buildings. I looked back over my shoulder on several occasions hoping to find my bàba with his men hurrying along to catch up to us. He was, however, nowhere in sight.

On more than two occasions, I wiped the corners of my eyes to take away any signs of the tears that did not want to stop forming. If this was a test, then I was beginning to think it might be too much for me. I remembered Father’s words to me just before he lifted me to the dock—a man must be strong. Did he believe that at only five years of age, I was already a man? Was he abandoning me? If he was, then why? The evidence to support this conclusion was growing by the minute. And these two escorts of mine—who were they? Once in a while, they spoke some words to one another that I did not understand. I suppose they communicated in the Siamese language, but unfortunately, I did not know very much of it and could not understand what they were saying.

Finally, we began to ascend a very big staircase outside of the main building. My legs grew tired when we were just halfway to the top of it. The boy in the robe took me by the hand and helped me up each of the tall steps. His hand was warm and moist as it clenched my own. The weather seemed to be getting warmer by the minute, and the air itself was sticky and wet. Before we were to enter the building, I looked back one more time to find Father, but he was not there. From this high vantage point, I was able to see out onto the river to my left. It was then that my heart suddenly fell to my feet because I thought I could see Bàba’s boat heading upriver. I stopped to focus more closely. I know it is his boat! Why is he going away?

The boy holding my hand then suddenly yanked me forward as if to say do not look back any longer! When my heart started beating again in its normal position within my chest, it was beating loudly and angrily. The spirit inside of me now felt defeated, as if it would throw my body onto the floor, making it collapse into a fit of tears and rage. We entered the palace building and into a grand plaza of some sort. Right away, I saw marble floors, cement columns, and hot rays of sunlight streaming through the tall windows in the wall on the opposite side of the river. There was a large golden Buddha statue next to potted palm trees along one wall, and then several staircases on the wall directly in front of us, which led up to the higher floors above. Wooden doors led to other rooms all along the side walls, and several larger rooms had entrances which did not have doors to separate them from the main room.

But what appeared as the most obvious sight were the walls themselves, which had upon each of them what must have been the largest paintings I had ever seen. They covered the four walls and much of the ceiling and were all different—some depicted kings in front of structures and buildings, some were of the ancient gods, and others envisioned great wars with men in chariots throwing spears and striking clubs down upon enemy heads, as they charged across open fields with armies of men in different uniforms running in all directions. Other paintings showed just the opposite—people in golden robes prostrate in prayer throughout courtyards of what appeared to be palaces built just like this Grand Palace itself. In between the various scenarios, there were mountains and oceans, boats and trains. The paintings all flowed into one another and covered almost every inch of the walls and ceiling of this magnificent plaza.

Besides the murals, I could now begin to see through the windows out onto other courtyards and buildings which were on all sides of this main building. I saw that there were heavy brick and stone walls, and also fashionable columns that separated the various parts of this palace metropolis, with its multitude of monuments and buildings everywhere that the eye could see. There was what appeared to be a green-skinned Hindu deity adorned in golden robes and turban seated on a pedestal right outside of the north courtyard. I noticed that all of the trim which ran across the bottom edges of every structure’s rooftops was ornately gilded with intricate gold carvings.

The two boys did not stop to admire any of these things, so accustomed to it they must have been. We continued on in a hurried manner all the way to a back hallway which opened up to another outdoor trail; this time built of solid wooden planks. Gardens of flowering plants and trees were on either side of our path, and many people were sitting on mats off to the side—some eating, others engaging in conversations, and some prostrate in prayer.

We rounded several corners of some of the smaller buildings, and then we came into a parlor of sorts that was decorated in all manner of the same golden trim used below the rooftops, but this time it was all along the walls on the inside of this room; up high and close to the ceiling. This room had more of the wall paintings, but they were different in that all of these were of men in royal dress and military uniforms. Tall glass cases of ancient weaponry of various kinds stood proudly in the corners of this stately room, and in its center, there was a chair set high above the floor on a platform of three steps made of golden textiles. Sitting in the chair with his hands stretched out on the chair’s arms, was an older man who was of average build, who had very little hair above his forehead, and who had a well-groomed mustache. He was wearing a smooth white shirt of some sort of silky fabric, and black pants that seemed to balloon out from his hips to his knees. He wore shiny black shoes and had on long white socks which came up his calves, and his trousers were tucked into these. He had a kind but very serious look on his face.

The boys stood me before him, and then they immediately knelt. I just stood and stared at the man. He nodded and the boys stood up, and then they took two steps back but remained at my flanks. The man brought his hand to his chin and studied me with his eyes. Slowly a small grin came upon his face. I stood there lost in my abandonment by my bàba, and I felt very anxious by this fact, yet also ashamed for some reason. And then the man began to speak, and I realized he knew Cantonese.

Pon, welcome to my kingdom. Your father and I are very close friends. It is my honor and privilege to accept you into my family.

I stood silently, grateful to hear that he thought of my bàba as a friend, and yet terrified to think he might continue speaking to me about what was to come. I had heard his words accept you into my family, but I did not want to derive meaning from them at all. A small visit perhaps would be okay, I supposed, and I could do that without my mother and my father for a few days—but not much more than that.

When he spoke to me again, he spoke slowly and seemed to choose his words carefully. Your father is a very great man. Great men must make sacrifices in order to fulfill their destinies. He stopped for a moment and then nodded again to one of the boys behind me. I did not turn around but stared straight at this man, and then a thought that had been wedged in the farthest reaches of my mind suddenly began to whittle its way through my emotional confusion and turmoil. Before it got there, he went on. Because of what your bàba has done, our two families will forever be united as one, when in the past they had been two distinct clans. Although they had been separated, for all eternity our families had been searching without knowing that they had been looking for completion through the joining together with the other.

Suddenly the boy in the suit came back with two younger boys my own age, each dressed in royal fashion from head to toe, and wearing crowns of gold upon their small heads. Both of the younger boys knelt. It was right there and then that the thought brewing in the deep recesses of my mind leapt to front and center of my conscious thinking. The man then waved at them and they both stood at one and the same time. The man looked at me keenly, and a glimmer of a smile returned to his lips. As if he knew what thought it was that had just occurred to me, the man introduced the boys. These are two of my sons, and I am hopeful that you will be their good friends someday soon. Allow me to introduce you to Prince Paribatra Sukhumbandhu, and Prince Vajiravudh.

It was then that the possibility from a moment ago just then arrived at the forefront of my mind and had been confirmed in totality. I realized without the shadow of a doubt, that I had been holding audience to the king himself—King Rama V, King of Siam.

Immediately kneeling before the king, I closed my eyes and lowered my head in silence.

King Rama V then said, Pon, please stand.

I jumped to my feet and suddenly Prince Paribatra and Prince Vajiravudh turned to me with a brief and reverential bow of greeting. Placing my hands to my side as Bàba had showed me, I bowed deeply first to the king, and then to each of the princes in return.

*****

As the day unfurled, I seemed to keep meeting so many children of the king—most, if not all, princes and princesses of some sort, and of all ages from just infants up through adults. It was quite odd and yet fascinating at the same time. I still felt this was only a test by Father, and he would be coming to join me at any time. Trying hard to pass, inside of me there seemed to be a struggle going on between what was real and what was not. I did not know for certain that he would ever return, and if he did not, would this mean that I also was now a son of the king?

Prince Vajiravudh brought me to a washroom and had me undress. There was a tub there with warm water in it which he directed me to get in. He watched me make sure that I washed carefully using soap that had a very nice aroma; similar to the lavender kind Mother had used back home. Several times, the prince directed me to scrub more carefully with a cloth. Finally handing me a towel to dry with after I had finished, the prince then brought me to another room filled with racks and racks of garments which were hanging from long metal rods along all four sides of the room. He took an outfit from off of one of the rods, and it looked quite elegant. It was a set of beige silk pants that were a bit baggy, with a very long blue shirt made of the finest fabric. The prince had me try it on, but it was too small, and I could barely squeeze into it. So I had to take those off, and then he got another outfit of the same colors from a little further along the metal rod. He helped me to put this one on, and it seemed to fit me very well. He took a step back from me and stared for a moment, and once he had made his judgment, he seemed pleased with how I looked.

The prince then finished off my outfit by putting a red silk handkerchief in the breast pocket of my shirt, which also had a small circular collar that ran tightly around my neck. I had never before dressed so regally, and it felt to me that suddenly I was also a royal subject. The prince put his finger between the collar and the skin of my neck to make sure it was snug and yet not too tight, and then he tried telling me the names of the articles of clothing, but I did not understand. Smiling at me, he hurried over to a desk in the middle of the room and wrote something on some paper that he found there using a pen with a long feather quill. He came back to me and showed me what he had written. I saw the word Chut thai, and then chong kraben. With the second word, he pointed at my pants. Then he wrote the word Sado and pointed to my shirt; which now that I had it on, felt more like a light robe since it went all the way down to my knees. He repeated the three words two more times each, and then he had me try to say them out loud. It was difficult at first, and he kept repeating each syllable until I understood how to say the words. Finally, after the fourth try, I must have gotten them right because he seemed pleased with my pronunciation of them. We then both put on socks and black shoes.

We walked down a long hallway that was painted dark red and which had monuments to soldiers and to ancient kings. It was lit with gas-burning lanterns, and the floor was covered in a soft and plush covering of white fabric. We went down a long stairway and came into a parlor that had long tables of silver pitchers filled with various drinks. Male and female servants of all ages and races were busy scurrying about bringing the pitchers and some silver trays of fruits and breads through a large wooden doorway. Prince Vajiravudh took me by the hand and directed me through the doors and into a very expansive room decorated with stone columns along its sides, and having exquisite paintings, bejeweled ornaments, and also several stuffed wildlife heads set upon wooden plaques hanging from the walls. There were at least ten very large and elegant chandeliers dropping down from chains attached to the ceiling which lighted the table below very brightly. The table itself was as long as Bàba’s boat, if not longer. It seemed likely that more than one hundred people were seated around the table; with the king, of course, seated at the head of it.

The prince brought me to his bàba, the king, and Rama V stood. I immediately backed away a few steps, since I remembered Father’s instructions should one day we were to meet the king: at no time is a commoner to touch the king, and in similar fashion, the king should never be in such a position as to so much as even just slightly brush alongside of a commoner. From behind me, I felt a hand upon my shoulder ushering me forward to the edge of the table, which placed me directly in front of all of the men, women, and children who had been seated around the table all dressed very smartly. I was about half of a meter to the right of the king, and I turned briefly to see it had been the prince who had brought me forth. Instantly, I became very nervous once again. The king raised a silver goblet high into the air and said several sentences in Siamese which I did not understand. Suddenly, all of the guests erupted in applause as they smiled at me. The king then turned to Prince Vajiravudh and nodded, and the prince took me by the hand and led me all the way to the other end of the table, where there were two empty chairs waiting for us.

We ate dinner in this magnificent dining room, which was a room almost as large as the plaza we had entered when I had first been brought into the Grand Palace earlier in the day. It was the largest table I had ever seen, with painted plates, silver implements lying upon fancy cloth napkins on each side of the plates, and beautiful crystal glasses at the top of each setting. I looked carefully, but I did not see any chopsticks. When the food started coming, everybody was using the silver to eat with, and I tried watching as best as I could to understand how these were to be utilized. Prince Vajiravudh looked down at me several times as he ate, and finally, he nodded toward the silver in front of me. For the first time in my life, I tried to use the silver utensils instead of chopsticks to eat my meal. It took a few attempts before I even began to get used to it. The food kept on falling off of the thing I learned that they called a fork, and the prince showed me that instead of scooping my food, I must stab it with the fork. All those diners within view laughed at my vain attempts at first. Sometimes I used the utensil they called the spoon when I should have used the fork, and Prince Vajiravudh had to correct me. I liked using the knife, however, and I had used one of those before with Father when we had gone hunting and camping.

With each new course of dinner, I could not believe how wealth never stopped showing itself in all varieties of manners in every experience I was having so far at the palace—from the sumptuous food carried out to us by numerous servants over the multitude of different courses, to the elegant gowns and jewelry worn by each of the king’s wives, the palace itself, and in every area of decor. During the meal, many men, women, and children came to me to pat me on the head and to pinch me on the cheek. They were constantly saying words to me that I did not understand, since I still only knew a few words in Siamese, so I just smiled up at them. Before the end of the meal, I had counted more than twenty women who had each been introduced to me as the king’s wife, and this was quite puzzling of course. It was the crowns of gold worn by the princes and the gold tiaras worn by the princesses that I could not stop looking at throughout the evening. A thought came to me that both bothered me somewhat and also made me feel quite curious. How many children did King Rama V have altogether? It seemed endless, and I had soon lost count. For the entire meal, I remained seated close by Prince Vajiravudh, Prince Paribatra, and two other younger princes.

There was a great amount of food that I did not recognize and did not even know of its origins. I tried some and must admit I found it deliciously fascinating. The noodles, fish, and vegetables were familiar, and I ate those with gusto. Many of the fruits were odd to me, but I watched to see which ones Prince Vajiravudh put on his plate, and I tried some of those. They were mostly sumptuous, except for one that was thick-skinned and had red meat at its core. This one was bitter and made my mouth pucker in reaction to its composition.

The dinner was long, and I was getting tired. I had grown exhausted watching all of the adults with their unremitting laughter and dramatic storytelling, which even though I did not know what they were saying, I knew by the show of their hands making continuous exaggerated movements that it must be very melodramatic. The children all watched silently and respectfully, and seemed either quite interested or quite well-trained, in listening to what was being told. I could not help but to watch the three doorways spread out at the sides of the room, hoping Father would come strolling through, having a big smile on his face and outstretched arms to welcome me back into his embrace. After dinner, Prince Vajiravudh took me, along with several other princes even younger than ourselves, and we walked up the stairway, down the long hall, and back into the room with all of the garments and wardrobes. Those needing to do so took turns using the water room and toilets there, and I waited until all were done before doing so. Still, I did not have as much privacy as I had hoped to have. How familiar each of the boys seemed to be with one another, and none seemed concerned with privacy! Prince Vajiravudh then took down an orange robe made of very plush and soft cloth from one of the racks. He handed it to me, and then he and all of the other boys retrieved similar robes of their own.

While undressing in order to put on my robe, I watched as each of the other boys very carefully took off their shoes and socks, and then their outer garments. They folded their clothing very neatly before placing them in an organized pile onto the floor beneath the hanging garments, and each prince had his own area. I took the clothes I had been wearing, and I tried to do the same. Prince Vajiravudh watched me as I did so, and he seemed to have nodded slightly upon my completion of the task. After we had all gotten into our orange robes, remaining barefooted, we all filed out of the room. This time, we went down the hallway in the opposite direction from the dining room and wound up on a cement deck that overlooked the entire eastern side of the temple. At the railing, I could see the entire city of Bangkok stretching out below us and lit up in colorful lights. In the distance, there must have been a festival of some sort because I heard strange music rising into the air, along with the distant shouting of crowds frolicking. Beautiful as it was, we did not stop very long to enjoy the sights, and the boys seemed to be in a hurry to go down the outdoor staircase. We took the steps, some of them two at a time, and then were suddenly delivered into a very fragrant garden. Everything was instantly exotic—like we had been transported into the middle of some far-off forest. It felt like to an entirely different place and time, and I immediately loved this area. With birds I had never before seen or heard cooing and screeching in the darkness, I felt joyous and amazed, and it was then that I realized I did not miss Father so much at this moment.

After almost sprinting through the gardens, we shuffled down some walkways, spun around a large bend in the trail, and then arrived at a structure even more stylish and stately than any I had seen thus far within the palace walls. Elegant golden columns in four rows spread across the front of the building, and there were also two mythical Hindu giants called yakshis towering over us—I had seen them as drawings while reading one of Father’s books. Several palm trees adorned the spaces between the columns that were adjacent to the main entranceway, and after we traversed these, we were before a large doorway made of dark green bamboo edged with gold and having two tall lanterns burning on either side. It suddenly occurred to me that I had seen photos of this very entrance before in Father’s book, and I knew where we had arrived.

The boy in front took the large golden handle of the door and opened it, and soon the rest of us filed inside. Darkness welcomed those who entered, but as soon as we were five steps further into the structure, I knew for certain there must be no richer country in the whole world than Siam. In the glow of the soft and gentle flames from several lanterns placed around the inside of the building, I could see now that so much of the interior was decorated in ancient Asian and Indian heritage. Thousands of rare gemstones were set within multitudes of sacred monuments too numerous to count, and all the walls were lined with trim made from precious metals which held even more stones, along with intricate wooden carvings, that together covered every area of the walls and the entire ceiling. But what was the center of attraction was a small green statue of Buddha, and as I had known, we had entered into the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Bàba had taught me this history, and it had captivated me