BANGKOK
The year-long funeral ceremony of Thailand’s former queen Sirikit started on Sunday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace.
Members of the royal family are 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 on Oct. 24 at the age of 93.
Black and white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertising billboards, on TVs in supermarkets and hotel lobbies, and as pop-up notices on Thai banking apps.
The former queen’s body yesterday made the short trip from Chulalongkorn Hospital to the seat of the Thai royalty, where she will lie in state for one year before cremation.
Television newscasters are wearing black and media websites have turned monochrome, while citizens have been asked to dress in muted colors and curtail celebratory public events for 90 days.
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 favorably to former U.S. first lady Jackie Kennedy, in rapturous coverage on the front pages of their glossy magazines.
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