Vajirananavarorasa (also spelled Wachirayan, Watchirayanawarorot, correct Pali spelling: Vajirañāṇavarorasa, , full title Somdet Phramahasamanachao Kromphraya Vajirananavarorasa สมเด็จพระมหาสมณเจ้ากรมพระยาวชิรญาณวโรรส ) (12 April 1860, Bangkok, Thailand - 2 August 1921, Bangkok, Thailand) was the tenth Supreme Patriarch of Thailand from 1910 to 1921. He helped to institutionalize Thai Buddhism.
Destined to become "the leading intellectual of his generation in Siam", in the words of the Thai historian David K. Wyatt (cited in Reynolds 1979:xiii), his royal name was Prince Manuṣyanāgamānob (พระองค์เจ้ามนุษยนาคมานพ) ('he who is a nāga among men'). Vajirañāṇavarorasa is the name he received on a gold nameplate together with the Krommamuen rank on 16 March 1882.
Early life and education
Vajirañana was the 47th child of King Mongkut. He was born in the Grand Palace as the fourth child of Phae, one of King Mongkut's concubines. She died after giving birth to her fifth child, a daughter, when he was one year old. He was then fostered by a maternal relative, Princess Varaseṭhasutā or "Putrī", a daughter of King Rama III, and her mother, a royal concubine named Samaśakti or "Ueng".
In the palace, he was taught the Siamese alphabet by a woman, Nok Panakngan. The nobleman Phraya Pariyatidharrmadhātā or "Piam" (then called Luang Rājābhirama), deputy head of the Royal Pundits Department, came to the Palace to teach the young Vajirañana and other princes the Khmer script used to inscribe religious texts in Pāli. With a teacher who was official at the Outer Court, Vajirañana studied Padamālā (Pāli grammar), the Dhammapada commentary, and other texts until 1868. When his elder brother, Prince Brahmavarānurakṣa, ordained as a novice, Vajirañana was allowed to live with him in Wat Pavaraniveśa for some while. There he occasionally studied Pāli scripture with Phra Pariyatidharrmadhātā ("Chang", then Luang Śrīvaravohāra), one of the four section chiefs in the Royal Pundits Department, who taught monks and novices at the monastery.
After his father had died in 1868 and his elder half brother Chulalongkorn had come to the throne, Vajirañana was back at the palace, receiving more education from his foster aunt, Princess Varaseṭhasutā. With her he practised reading and writing Siamese, and he was taught verse forms, Siamese arithmetic, and astrology.
King Chulalongkorn founded an English medium school on the palace grounds and hired the Englishman Francis George Patterson for providing Western education. When the school first opened in 1872, Vajirañana began to study there. Patterson instructed the brothers of the king in the morning and the boys from the Royal Pages' Bodyguard Regiment in the afternoon. Patterson could not speak Siamese, and he used European textbooks, teaching English and French (reading, writing and speaking), mathematics and also some European history and geography. Vajirañana and Prince Damrong Rajanubhab were the most diligent of Patterson's students. Vajirañana continued his education with Patterson until 1875.
At the age of 13, Vajirañana was ordained as a novice for 78 days on 7 August 1873, with Prince Pavareś (สมเด็จพระมหาสมณเจ้า กรมพระยาปวเรศวริยาลงกรณ์, "Prince Roek" ฤกษ์, 1809–1892) as his preceptor. As a novice, he lived in Wat Pavaraniveśa, in a small residence known as "The Printshop": His father, King Mongkut, had once lived there as a monk and had printed his Ariyaka script there.
After having disrobed from his novicehood, Vajirañana got his first bigger amount of money to spend and discovered the world of consume. But in 1876, he met the young (between 25 and 30) Scottish physician Dr. Peter Gowan. Dr. Gowan taught him English here and then and a little about medicine, and he had a big influence on Vajirañana's life conduct (stop smoking, drinking and some prodigal or even dissolute habits). Getting more and more attracted to the monastery, Vajirañana went to visit his uncle, the reigning Supreme Patriarch Prince Pavareś. By him, Vajirañana was given instruction in poetry, astrology, and Buddhist scripture in 1876. He learned some additional astrology (i.e. how to do calendars) from two other teachers, Khun Debyākaraṇa ("That") and "Pia" (Phrakrupalat Suvaḍhanasutaguṇa at Wat Rājapratiṣṭha). Under the guidance of Prince Pavareś, Vajirañana also took up the study of Dhamma. He also invited one of his former Pāli teachers, Phra Pariyatidharrmadhātā ("Chang"), to come to the monastery to instruct him in Pāli again.
Vajirañana has always been very critical about the methods by which students learned Pāli and would later rewrite the texts for Pāli studies.