Bhumibol Adulyadej

About Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned as King of Thailand from 1946 until his death in 2016, holds a significant place in modern history, ranking #776 in overall historical importance according to MIT's Pantheon project. As the world's longest-reigning monarch at the time of his death, his nearly 70-year rule spanned immense political and social transformation in Thailand. He was seen as a unifying figure and patron of the nation's Buddhism, deeply influencing the country's political landscape through his symbolic and sometimes direct interventions during periods of instability.

Relative to this historical weighting, Bhumibol Adulyadej attracts notable, but not overwhelming, modern internet attention, registering 757K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This places him in a category of 'overattention' according to our Attention Gap metric, specifically showing a +2x overattention relative to his historical importance ranking. This level of online focus is comparable to that of other major 20th-century politicians in our pool, such as Augusto Pinochet (#942 importance, 1.2M views). However, his attention is growing, indicated by a significant 2025 momentum score of +72% in Q1 versus Q3 traffic, suggesting increasing contemporary digital relevance.