Brahmin priests, drummers and soldiers in ceremonial uniforms yesterday led a solemn, but colorful procession through Bangkok’s historic heart as Thailand bade farewell to king Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose death left the nation without its chief unifying figure.
About 300,000 black-clad mourners packed the streets, some weeping and prostrating themselves on the ground as a golden chariot carrying the royal urn snaked through the city in blazing heat.
The golden spires of a spectacular US$90 million cremation site, purpose-built for the funeral, were bathed in sunshine as Bhumibol’s son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, joined Buddhist monks for the day of processions, pageantry and ritual.
Photo: AP
Brahmin priests untied their ponytails in an outpouring of grief before the royal urn was moved to a gun carriage to circle the funeral pyre three times ahead of the evening cremation.
Vajiralongkorn was yesterday to light the golden pyre at 10pm as his father, Rama IX of the Chakri Dynasty, is laid to rest.
The ceremony was to be attended by a Who’s Who of Thai power — royals, generals and establishment figures — as well as scores of foreign dignitaries.
The lavish event gave the public a chance to say a final goodbye to a monarch known as “father of the nation” who was crowned in 1950 and towered over decades of Thai history, before his death in October last year at age 88 seeded uncertainty in a country ruled by a divisive junta.
A brew of palace propaganda and a harsh lese majeste law burnished the king’s reputation throughout his reign.
However, Bhumibol’s intimate connection with his subjects was on ready display yesterday.
“He was perfect. He helped the country and Thai people so much; 70 million Thai people are united in their love for him,” said 65-year-old Wacharadej Tangboonlabkun, who like most Thais knew no other monarch before Bhumibol’s death.
The death of a figure of constancy in a politically combustible country has dipped the kingdom into uncertainty.
“There’s no more a father who only gave to his children,” mourner Kingkan Kuntavee told reporters.
For much of Bhumibol’s long reign, Thailand remained stuck on a carousel of violent protests, short-lived civilian governments and coups.
Political turmoil threw up a supply of junta leaders and prime ministers, but all lacked Bhumibol’s moral capital with the Thai people. He left behind one of the world’s richest monarchies, one that stands at the apex of one of Southeast Asia’s most unequal societies.
Deference toward the monarchy — and the social elites it underpins — is a given in Thailand.
Ahead of the processions, palace aides shuffled on their knees in the presence of the new king, as monks in orange robes chanted Buddhist prayers. Vajiralongkorn, who wore full military regalia as he joined the procession, is to be crowned after his father is laid to rest.
He has yet to win the same affection among the Thai public as his father, whose image was carefully curated by palace public relations officials, cementing a reputation as austere, benevolent and incorruptible, despite the fast-changing times.
Thais have donned black for much of the past year in a remarkable outpouring of grief, which officially ends on Monday.
They are expected to return to colorful clothes at the conclusion of the mourning period, which celebrates the king’s ascent to Mount Meru, the center of the universe in Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cosmology.
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