Year-long funeral starts for Thailand’s former queen Sirikit
NN ONLINE:
The year-long funeral ceremony of Thailand’s former Queen Sirikit started Sunday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her remains to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. The royal family is venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide.
Former Queen Sirikit, the mother of the current King Vajiralongkorn and wife of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late Friday at the age of 93. Digital advertising billboards in the Thai capital are displaying towering black tributes to the royal matriarch, while citizens have been asked to wear dark tones and curtail celebratory public events.
The former queen’s body is due late on Sunday afternoon to make the short trip from Chulalongkorn Hospital to the seat of the Thai royalty, where she will lie in state for one year before cremation. Throughout her 66-year marriage to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Sirikit carved a dual reputation as a glittering fashionista and the nation’s caring mother figure.
Some Western media compared Sirikit favourably to former US first lady Jackie Kennedy in rapturous coverage of her tenure on the front pages of their glossy magazines. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul delayed his departure to Malaysia on Saturday for a summit of ASEAN leaders where he was due to sign a peace deal with Cambodia, witnessed by US President Donald Trump.
But he still jetted out for a quick turnaround endorsement of the pact, made after cross-border clashes in July killed more than 40 people and forced around 300,000 to flee their homes. “I send my condolences to the Great People of Thailand,” Trump said on social media, en route to Malaysia on Sunday morning.
“In order to accommodate everyone for this major event, we will be signing the Peace Deal immediately upon arrival.” Sirikit’s husband King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s lengthy reign from 1946 until 2016 was bookended by World War II and Trump’s first inauguration.
Though Bhumibol’s son inherited the throne about nine years ago, many still revere him as the nation’s most steadfast figurehead — and Sirikit as his constant companion. She retired from the public eye in recent years, her privacy sealed by strict lese majeste laws that limit what can be reported about the royal family.
Sirikit had “suffered several illnesses” while hospitalised since 2019, including a blood infection this month, the palace said in a statement. But in her glamorous heyday in the 1960s she mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley, while at home touring Thailand to visit villagers in rural areas. She was referred to as the “Mother of the Nation” and her birthday was designated the country’s Mothers’ Day.