Thailand Celebrates Monarch's Platinum Jubilee

Pimuk Rakkanam
2016.06.09
Bangkok
thai-king-1.jpg

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand (Rama IX) is carried by a cortege during a celebration of his coronation, May 5, 1950, in Thailand. [Facebook page/Thai History Before and After 1932]

thai-king-2.jpg

Women in Bangkok hold images of the king during the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of his reign, June 9, 2016. (AFP)

thai-king-3.jpg

Buddhist monks walk toward the Grand Palace during festivities marking the 70th anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's reign, in Bangkok, June 9, 2016. (AFP)

thai-king-4.jpg

Thai Naval oarsmen power the famous “Suphannahongsa” barge in front of the Grand Royal Palace in Bangkok, during rehearsals to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the king’s ascension to the throne, April 28, 2006. (AFP)

thai-king-5.jpg

Thai Muslim children stand next to a portrait of the king during the 60th anniversary celebration of his ascension to the throne, in southern Yala province, June 8, 2006. (AFP)

thai-king-6.jpg

Women hold portraits of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej as they sit on the sidewalk outside the Royal Palace on the eve of his Coronation Day anniversary, in the seaside city of Hua Hin, May 4, 2014. (AFP)

thai-king-7.jpg

Royalists from central Nakhon Sawan province join prayers for the king at the Royal Grounds, June 9, 2016. (Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews)

thai-king-8.jpg

Thais hold portraits of the king in front of a building at Siriraj Hospital where he is being treated, June 9, 2016, (Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews)

The people of Thailand turned out June 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the ascension to the throne of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), the world’s longest-reigning living monarch.

To commemorate the milestone in the life of Bhumibol who is seen as a unifying figure, Thai officials and citizens held religious rites to bless and pay tribute to the 88-year-old monarch, the ninth king of Thailand’s Chakri Dynasty. But he did not appear in public because he was ailing in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital.

Tragedy brought Bhumibol, who was officially coronated in May 1950, to the throne at age 18. He succeeded his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, on the same day that his older sibling died of a gunshot wound. Seventy years later, the circumstances of Ananda’s death remain a mystery.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha kicked off the national celebration of Bhumibol’s platinum jubilee by offering alms to Buddhist monks and presiding over a prayer ceremony by 770 Buddhist monks at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), inside the Grand Palace compound.

At the nearby Royal Grounds, thousands of people clad in yellow shirts joined the alms to offer prayers for their frail king. On June 5, he had suffered an irregular heartbeat and a lack of blood to the cardiac muscles, and a team of doctors at the hospital unclogged his vessels through an angiography, officials at the royal palace said.

On June 7, U.S. President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry extended well wishes to the king, who was born in Massachusetts.

“As the only reigning monarch born in the United States, His Majesty shares a special connection with the American people.  King Bhumibol Adulyadej Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his birthplace, serves as a testament to the close ties between our two countries,” the American president said.

POST A COMMENT

Add your comment by filling out the form below in plain text. Comments are approved by a moderator and can be edited in accordance with RFAs Terms of Use. Comments will not appear in real time. RFA is not responsible for the content of the postings. Please, be respectful of others' point of view and stick to the facts.