Driving his own vehicle, sometimes on foot, and armed with nitty-gritty knowledge of development work, Bhumibol traveled deep into the countryside, leaving behind a fish pond here, a cow herd there, as well as large-scale efforts to revitalize infertile land and bring irrigation to parched zones.
On such trips, taken year after year, he forged face-to-face bonds with thousands of southerners, and an older generation still cherishes such memories.
Although the Royal Household says the 78-year-old Bhumibol, the world's longest reigning monarch, monitors his projects in considerable detail, bouts of ill health have kept him largely confined to a seaside palace south of Bangkok. But members of his family carry on the field work.
Queen Sirikit, who spent 45 days in the south last year, has issued an emotional plea to the rebels: "You don't have to shoot anyone, but show the [government] that you are dissatisfied, that there is harassment of the people who are poor and earning a living day by day."
"We have received good cooperation from people at the top, such as religious leaders. However, young Muslims are rather indifferent to our projects no matter how poor they are. It might be because they have been brainwashed," the queen's military aide, General Napol Boonthap, told reporters recently.
Abuza, the expert on Islamic insurgencies who teaches at Simmons College in the US, said that the hard-core insurgents, imbued with radical Islamic ideology, are unlikely to lay down their arms before a Buddhist king. But he added that the royals can do a great deal to alleviate grievances which breed discontent and "to restore the dignity of local Muslims."
"I feel that the queen is like my second mother," said Asi Phandao, a Muslim widow with five children, whose policeman husband was gunned down by rebels.
The 45-year-old woman is among 150 Buddhist and Muslim families, all victims of the violence, given free land, houses, fields and vocational training by the queen at Rotan Batu, in the province of Narathiwat.
"Here we call him `Rajo Kito,' `Our King,'" said Je Ma Uma, a 65-year-old father of nine children.
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