Thousands gather in Bangkok as former Thai queen Sirikit’s body lies in state for year-long funeral at Grand Palace after her death at 93
BANGKOK: Thousands of grieving Thai royalists lined the streets of Bangkok on Sunday to salute a procession carrying former queen Sirikit’s body to lie in state for a year-long funeral at the capital’s Grand Palace.
Members of the Thai royal family are venerated as semi-divine figures and receive glowing media coverage with gold-adorned portraits displayed nationwide.
Former queen Sirikit died on Friday at the age of 93 as the mother of current King Vajiralongkorn and wife of Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch.
Sirikit’s body travelled slowly in an ambulance from Chulalongkorn Hospital on Sunday afternoon during a 10-kilometre procession to the Grand Palace.
Crowds of nurses clasped their hands and bowed while other spectators held portraits of the queen or wept as police officers saluted on one knee.
“I want to send her off for the last time, on her last journey, as one of her children — as a Thai who loves and respects her,” 56-year-old Boontham Kornwaen told AFP outside the hospital.
The former queen’s body will remain at the seat of Thai royalty for one year before cremation.
Black and white tributes to the royal matriarch appeared on towering billboards, supermarket televisions, hotel lobbies, and Thai banking applications.
Television newscasters wore black while media websites turned monochrome as citizens were asked to dress in muted colours and limit celebratory events for 90 days.
Tanaburdee Srimuang maintained a vigil outside the Grand Palace since learning of Sirikit’s death in the early hours of Saturday.
“I am not tired,” the 24-year-old told AFP. “I am happy to be here for her for the last time.”
Approximately half of the people in a central Bangkok supermarket and shopping street wore traditional Thai mourning colours of black or white.
K-pop supergroup Blackpink proceeded with sold-out weekend shows at Bangkok’s 50,000-seat Rajamangala National Stadium while requesting attendees “to wear black attire as a mark of mourning”.
Throughout her 66-year marriage to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Sirikit established a reputation as both a glamorous fashionista and the nation’s caring mother figure.
Some Western media outlets compared Sirikit to former US first lady Jackie Kennedy.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul delayed his departure to Malaysia on Saturday for an ASEAN leaders summit where a peace deal with Cambodia was signed.
He still travelled for a quick turnaround endorsement of the pact following cross-border clashes in July that killed more than 40 people and displaced around 300,000.
“I send my condolences to the Great People of Thailand,” US President Donald Trump posted on social media while en route to Malaysia for Sunday’s signing ceremony.
The lengthy reign of Sirikit’s husband spanned from 1946 until 2016, bookended by World War II and Trump’s first election victory.
Though Vajiralongkorn inherited the throne approximately nine years ago, many Thais still revere Bhumibol as the nation’s most steadfast figurehead with Sirikit as his constant companion.
She retired from public life in recent years with her privacy protected by strict lese majeste laws limiting royal family reporting.
Sirikit had “suffered several illnesses” during hospitalization since 2019, including a recent blood infection, according to a palace statement.
During her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, she socialized with US presidents and superstars including Elvis Presley.
She was known domestically as the “Mother of the Nation” with her birthday designated as the country’s Mother’s Day. – AFP
