When the King Bhumibol Adulyadej returned to
Thailand from his studies in Switzerland in 1951 with his wife, Queen Sirikit, and their first daughter,
Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, the princess mother remained in
Lausanne. She returned only periodically between 1952 and 1963 in order to attend significant functions or events, such as the birth of her grandchildren, the illness and subsequent death of
Queen Sri Savarindira, the Queen Grandmother, or the ordination of her son. For these visits, she would stay only one or two months at a time, and only stayed for extended periods when the occasion demanded. On the king's state visit to 14 European countries and the United States in 1960, she remained in
Thailand for six months, acting as
Regent of Thailand during the king's absence, just as she did during subsequent state visits overseas until 1967. As regent, the Princess Mother carried out various official duties on behalf of the king, including accepting diplomatic credentials from newly posted ambassadors, conferring degrees on university graduates, presiding at religious ceremonies and putting her signature to several important legislative acts. She was the third female regent of the
Rattanakosin era, the first being
Queen Saovabha Phongsri during the reign of King
Chulalongkorn (later became Queen Sri Bajrindra, the Queen Mother), and
Queen Sirikit early on in the present reign. In this capacity, she put her signature to a number of important laws and declarations, including the Suppression of Prostitution Act of 1960, and the first National Economic Development Plan, 1961–1966. A trip to
Northern Thailand in 1964 helped change her routine. Not long after the
Bhubing Palace in
Chiang Mai Province was completed, the king invited the Princess Mother for a visit. As was her habit in Switzerland, the Princess Mother went for long treks through the woods behind the palace, enjoying the flora and fauna, and stopping in villages en route. It was then that she discovered the poverty of the villages in remote areas. There was a lack of schools and health services. Even the
border patrol police, who acted as guides and also provided security for her on the trips, were very poorly paid, and received no
per diem supplement for services rendered over and above normal duties. Her observations of the precarious economic situation of the rural areas, prompted the princess mother to make regular visits to the remotest areas of the kingdom, starting in 1964.
Social welfare projects In 1932, when her children had started school and she had more time on her hands, she set up an American-style "
sewing circle", inviting close acquaintances to join the group. Among the members of the circle were Mom Chao Sipphanphansanur Sohnakul, Thanpuying Prayong Sanidvongs na Ayudhya, Khunying Chalaem Puranasiri, Khunying Srivisarnvaja, Khunying Prem, Damrongbaedyakhun, Thanpuying Poa Anurakshraja mondira, and expatriate wives such as Mrs. Zimmerman, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Langesen, Mrs. Nederguard, Mrs. Pendleton and Mrs. Reeve, whose husbands were missionaries or lecturers at
Chulalongkorn University. The sewing circle members started by making their own clothes, then making clothes for poor children at various hospitals. They met once a week, each member taking turns hosting tea at home between 16:00-18:00. It soon became a procedure for the Princess Mother to use her own money to purchase items for poor villages during her increasingly frequent upcountry visits. These gifts included T-shirts, towels, multipurpose "pha khao ma" cloth, and stationery for teachers; school uniforms and stationery for schoolchildren; and pha khao ma, sarongs, needles and thread, medicine, tinned food, and dried foodstuffs for villagers. Children received toys suitable for their ages. She also set up with her own personal funds a number of foundations, most notably the Border Patrol Police Support Foundation and the New Life Foundation for those recovering from leprosy or mental illness. Apart from her own funds, the money for these various projects came from the sale of handicrafts made through projects initiated by the princess mother, such as pressed-flower greeting cards and brooms and brushes made from sisal hemp. In 1985, the cabinet approved the proposal of the National Committee for the Promotion and Development of Social Welfare Activities that 21 October, the Princess Mother's birthday, be declared National Social Welfare Day. As she was also a nurse, it has since been renamed
National Nurses' Day (Thai: วันพยาบาลแห่งชาติ Wan Phayaban Haeng Chat).
Education For the Princess Mother, education was of paramount was an importance. Being a scholarship student herself, she was known to provided scholarships to students as far back as 1920, not long after her marriage to
Prince Mahidol Adulyadej. The
Bangkok Times of 21 September 1920, listed the names of donors to the Kullasatri Wang Lang School, which included the newlyweds, who had donated 5,000 baht. The publication noted that Mom Sangwan Mahidol na Ayudhya, having married into the royal family, was entitled to an annual stipend of 200 baht, and that she donated it entirely to needy students. Through the influence of her husband, she had always considered it her responsibility to return to Thailand to help the nation. This sense of responsibility was instilled in her three children. According to
Princess Galyani Vadhana, "It was almost an unspoken rule, a nature [sic] sense of priority to do what we could for the country. What mother taught us came from Father. He was 8 years older than Mother, and taught her a lot. Mother was very receptive, she learned so much from Father. What she taught us I later found to be almost quoted verbatim from Father...It was like Father teaching us through Mother..." One of the princess mother's educational initiatives was the Border Patrol Police School project. A school had been set up by the Border Patrol Police Region 5 in their Dararasmi Camp, in
Mae Rim District,
Chiang Mai Province. The school provided access to education for children from remote regions, giving hill tribe children a chance to learn the Thai language and culture and instilling in them a sense of being Thai. The concept was in line with the princess mother's own philosophy that education was the key to improving human resources. She therefore took the school under her royal patronage in 1964, and donated funds to the Border Patrol Police to set up similar schools in remote areas. The private sector found this to be a worthy cause, and contributed its share in setting up more schools, which were named after their donors. Each school—there were eventually 185—had proper classrooms and accommodations for teachers. She went to open each of these schools, donating to them a set of symbolic items to bolster a sense of
Thai identity, including a Buddha image to symbolize religion, a portrait of the king or queen as an emblem of the monarchy, and a flag to represent the nation. She also made sure that each school was equipped with a radio set to keep up with the news, and a map of Thailand to give students a sense of belonging no matter where in the country they were located.
Public health To the Princess Mother, the health and well-being of her people were high on the list of priorities. The philosophy echoed that of her husband,
Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, who had pledged his mental, physical, and financial support to the field of public health of the country. Upon the death of Prince Mahidol, the Princess Mother continued to provide scholarships to medical students so their studies would not be interrupted. When they returned to work, she also supplemented their salary if it happened to be lower than the set rate. A revolving fund of 500,000 baht was provided to
Chulalongkorn University for 25 years, from which the interest could be used to send students for post-graduate studies overseas. After 25 years, the fund was transferred to the Faculty of Medicine,
Siriraj Hospital. In 1945, as she accompanied her elder son,
King Ananda Mahidol, back to Thailand, she brought back with her the drug PAS which was used to treat tuberculosis. In addition to providing scholarships, the princess mother continued to play a major role in the field of nursing in Thailand. She founded the Thailand Nursing Association, of which she was also a board member. With her funds, the first national nursing convention in Thailand was organized in 1960. Hospital buildings and nursing schools were built with her patronage.
Princess Mother's volunteer doctors Since 1964, when trips to remote areas to visit villagers and army personnel became a routine procedure, she noticed how people living there were plagued by health problems. Due to the lack of medical facilities, such basic illnesses as gastrointestinal infections, tapeworms, skin diseases, and malaria would often lead to death. In 1969, she established the first medical volunteer mobile unit in
Chiang Mai Province, called "The Princess Mother's Medical Volunteers". The team was made up of doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and health officers, who volunteered their time on weekends to treat the ill, and offer consultative services to the public free of charge. All expenses for these visits were subsidized by the Princess Mother. If she happened to be on the trip with the medical team, she would help fill the prescriptions and provide advice to the sick. Those in critical condition would be sent to local hospitals. Later, she experimented with the system of radio consultation between doctors in the hospital and patients at health centers in remote areas, following the system used by the
Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. The project was well received, and within a few years the number of radio centers increased to 446 covering 25 provinces, with the center of operations at
Srapathum Palace. Over a million patients benefited from this service. In 1974, the Princess Mother donated one million baht to establish "The Princess Mother's Volunteer Flying Doctor Foundation", which was subsequently changed into "The Princess Mother's Volunteer Foundation" (PMMV) in 1985. The Prostheses Foundation and the Breast Foundation, both under the patronage of the Princess Mother, were two projects initiated in her later years. The Prostheses Foundation was set up in 1992, when she learned that a doctor from
Chiang Mai University had developed below knee prostheses from recycled plastic bottles which cost only 700 baht, and artificial limbs that could be used for agricultural purposes for 300 baht. She saw this as an opportunity to provide artificial limbs free of charge to the poor. With initial funding donated by the princess mother, and further donations from her daughter,
Princess Galyani Vadhana, and the general public, the foundation offers artificial limbs to the needy.
Environmental conservation In 1964, at the age of 64, she hiked to the top of
Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak, in
Chiang Mai Province. She had been used to hiking from
Bhubing Palace, accompanied by border control police and two physicians. Soon she felt that she had covered all she could within the immediate vicinity, and yearned to conquer Doi Inthanon, which was visible from the palace windows. In those days there was no access road to the top, so the princess mother spent two nights camping out during her hike, the first night at Pang Somdet, and the following night at Ban Pha Mon. A large number of hill tribe villagers turned up to welcome her. The tribes people's lack of access to medical care concerned her. When she returned the following year, she brought with her two physicians, and her visits to these remote areas by helicopter eventually earned her the name
Mae Fah Luang among the hill tribes, meaning 'royal mother from the sky', referring to her arrival by helicopter with physicians, nurses, medicines, food, and clothing. With her visits to the hill tribes, she realized that their slash-and-burn system of cultivation had inadvertently caused the destruction of the watershed forests. Over the years, they had moved from place to place, leaving behind them patches of barren hillside. In response, she created the
Doi Tung Development Project. "I shall plant forests on Doi Tung", she pledged. In 1988, a total of 93,515 rai (14,962 ha) in
Mae Chan District,
Mae Sai District, and
Mae Fa Luang District of
Chiang Rai Province were targeted for reforestation and sustainable development to improve the quality of life of the local villagers. The Princess Mother played an active role in the Doi Tung Development Project, beginning with nursing tree saplings herself and replanting forests. Surrounding the palace are experimental plots where temperate crops are tested, such as
Arabica coffee beans from
Brazil and
Costa Rica,
macadamia, and
chestnuts.
Mulberry trees, the fibre of which is used to make
sa paper, is another of the money-making crops they plant, nurture, and process. New plant cultivation technologies are continually tested for the cultivation of asparagus, bananas, orchids, and strawberries. After successful trials, villagers are trained in the techniques to follow, the improvements designed to provide them with increased income. A Drug Rehabilitation Centre was also set up so addicts could be treated and provided with vocational training to suit their way of life. ==Personal life==