Hundreds of orange-robed monks yesterday led ceremonies marking 70 years since Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej ascended to the throne following the mysterious death of his brother, as anxiety grows over the health of the ailing octogenarian.
The 88-year-old king is the world’s longest-serving monarch and is seen as a unifying force in a nation bitterly divided along political lines.
However, he is hospital-bound and underwent a heart operation on Tuesday, following months of treatment for various health problems — including water on the brain.
Photo: EPA
His health is of grave concern to Thais, who revere the king and see him as a constant in a turbulent nation that has seen numerous coups and repeated rounds of deadly political violence.
Bhumibol’s image has been burnished by ritual and a publicity machine that sees giant portraits placed on streets and cinema-goers asked to stand for the royal anthem.
The leading royals are also shielded from criticism by a harsh royal defamation law that carries up to 15 years in jail for each charge.
The crown is also one of the world’s richest, with a multibillion-dollar property and investment portfolio.
Hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok early yesterday, as a line of 770 monks began a day of celebration with an alms-giving ceremony.
“I want to make merit for the king to encourage him to have good health. That’s how I can show loyalty to him even though he can’t see it, that’s fine,” 68-year-old Chonmanee Smativat said.
“I want him to know that we all love him,” the Bangkok resident said.
Bangkok residents of all ages donned yellow polo shirts, the king’s official color, many emblazoned with slogans saying “We Love the King,” while banks saw lines of people eager to buy commemorative 70 baht notes.
Thais are taught from a young age about his well-publicized development schemes and economic strategies credited with lifting the kingdom out off poverty as many of its neighbors fell to communism.
However, the kingdom is now cut in two with the arch-royalist Bangkok elite and south pitted against the pro-democracy north and northeast, dominated by the political dynasty of billionaire ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Two coups have bloodied the Shinawatra clan over the past decade, the last in 2014 led by a Bangkok-based establishment that refuses to accept defeat at the polls.
The king has officially endorsed both coups.
Bhumibol ascended to the throne on June 9, 1946, after his brother was found dead from a gunshot wound at a Bangkok palace — a death the king would describe decades later in a BBC documentary as “very mysterious.”
Most Thais have known no other monarch, who is formally known as Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty.
Analysts attribute Thailand’s seemingly intractable political conflict to a behind-the-scenes scramble for power by the Thai elite to secure their future once his reign draws to an end.
His anointed successor is Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, but he is yet to draw the same level of devotion as his father.
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