Crowds of Thais eager to witness history yesterday filled roads around the grand palace waiting under a scorching sun for newly crowned King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Rama X of Thailand, to emerge on a golden palanquin for a procession through Bangkok’s historic heart.
Wearing yellow shirts — the royal color — and carrying hats and umbrellas to protect against temperatures reaching 36°C, they inched through security checkpoints, many clutching portraits of the king.
“It may be my first and last chance to see this,” 57-year-old Nattriya Siripattana said of the first ceremony of its kind in 69 years. “I’m afraid of the heat but it won’t stop me.”
Photo: Reuters
The three-day coronation, which started on Saturday, is the first since Vajiralongkorn’s adored and revered father was crowned in 1950 and most Thais have never seen the elaborate show of pageantry and ritual.
The king and Queen Suthida stayed in the royal residence on Saturday night, where a Siamese cat and a white rooster were placed on a pillow as part of housewarming rituals intended to bring good tidings.
They moved to a throne hall yesterday morning where the king in white uniform bestowed the royal titles on family members, including on 14-year-old Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, who knelt and prostrated in front of his father as he was anointed with water.
The teenager is the king’s son from his third marriage. He has six other children, including four sons from two previous wives.
Thailand’s monarchy is swaddled in ritual, protocol and hierarchy all orbiting around the king, who is viewed as a demigod.
Later, Vajiralongkorn was to be carried from the palace by groups of soldiers in round gold helmets, flanked by others bearing umbrellas, beating drums and holding royal standards along a 7km procession.
Thais would have the opportunity to “pay homage” to the king who would also stop at several major temples to pray before large gilded Buddha images.
On the ground authorities sprayed mists of water over the crowds whose numbers were bolstered by droves of “Jit Arsa” — or “Spirit Volunteers” — intended to project a show of devotion and fealty to the monarchy.
Yet soaring temperatures threatened to thin out the numbers.
“I won’t go today because I’m afraid that I will faint,” a woman in her mid-60s said.
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