Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand died at the age of 88, on 13 October 2016, after a long illness. A year-long period of mourning was subsequently announced. A Royal cremation ceremony will take place over five days at the end of October 2017. The actual cremation will be held on October 26, 2017.^[1][2] Following cremation his ashes will be taken to the Grand Palace and will be enshrined at one of the palace's Buddhist temples.^[3]

Illness and death

King Bhumibol Adulyadej had been treated at Siriraj Hospital since 3 October 2014.^[4] The king had a high fever due to a blood infection. His health improved after his doctor gave him antibiotics.^[5] Until 28 September 2016, he had a low grade fever and pneumonitis. His doctor then treated him with antibiotics and hemodialysis owing to hypotension. His health later worsened due to a liver infection, and his condition remained unstable.^[6]

The king died at the hospital on 13 October 2016 at 15:52 local time, as announced by the Bureau of the Royal Household later that day.^[7][8]

Funeral

Thai national flag flown at half mast at defence ministry building on 28 October 2016

On 14 October 2016, the body of the late king was carried by an autocade from Siriraj Hospital to the Grand Palace. His body left Gate 8 of the hospital around 16:30. As the cortege passed Arun Ammarin Road, Phra Pin Klao Bridge, and Ratchadamnoen Road, crowds of Thais, most clad in black and many openly sobbing, paid homage. Led by Somdej Phra Vanarata (Chun Brahmagutto), the abbot of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, the autocade entered the palace via Thewaphirom Gate. Upon arrival at the palace, the body was given the bathing rite, presided over by the late king's son, King Vajiralongkorn. The event was live broadcast on television by the television pool of Thailand.^[9][10]

The general public were allowed to take part in a symbolic bathing rite in front of the king's portrait at Sahathai Samakhom Pavilion within the Grand Palace later that day.^[11]

Foreign dignitaries who attended the lying-in-state:

Country	Title	Dignitary	Date
Bhutan	King of Bhutan	Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck	16 October 2016[12]
	Queen of Bhutan	Jetsun Pema
Bahrain	Prime Minister	Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa	18 October 2016[13]
Singapore	Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong[14]	21 October 2016
Maldives	Special Envoy of the President	Mohamed Saeed[15]
Malaysia	Prime Minister	Najib Razak [16]	22 October 2016
Cambodia	Prime Minister	Hun Sen [17]
	Deputy Prime Minister	Tea Banh
China	Special Envoy of the President	Li Yuanchao [18]
Laos	Prime Minister	Thongloun Sisoulith [19]	24 October 2016
Singapore	President	Tony Tan[20]
Indonesia	President	Joko Widodo [21]	25 October 2016
Gambia	Special Envoy of the President	Bala Garba Jahumpa
Vietnam	Prime Minister	Nguyễn Xuân Phúc	28 October 2016[22]
Sri Lanka	President	Maithripala Sirisena	30 October 2016[23]
Lesotho	King of Lesotho	Letsie III	2 November 2016[24]
Myanmar	President	Htin Kyaw [25]	9 November 2016
Philippines	President	Rodrigo Duterte [26]
Belgium	Special Envoy of the King	Nicolas Nihon
India	Prime Minister	Narendra Modi	10 November 2016[27]
Bangladesh	Special Envoy of the President	Tarana Halim [28]	15 November 2016
Tonga	Crown Prince of Tonga	Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala
Timor Leste	Special Envoy of the President	Hernâni Coelho	16 November 2016
Russia	Special Envoy of the President	Andrey Klishas	30 November 2016
Bhutan	Queen Grandmother of Bhutan	Kesang Choden	20 December 2016
	Princess of Bhutan	Pema Lhaden
Japan	Emperor of Japan	Akihito	5 March 2017[29]
	Empress of Japan	Michiko
Bahrain	King of Bahrain	Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa	5 May 2017
Nepal	President	Bidhya Devi Bhandari	12 May 2017
Lithuania	President	Dalia Grybauskaitė	14 May 2017
Chile	Special Envoy of the President	Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle	1 June 2017
New Zealand	Special Envoy of the Government	Todd McClay	24 July 2017
Hong Kong	Chief Executive of Hong Kong	Carrie Lam	4 August 2017

Special nationwide services in all Buddhist temples together with a general 100th day memorial service were held to mark the 100 day mark since his death on 20 January 2017 with HM King Vajiralongkorn presiding over the national service.^[30]

On 28 February 2017, a special Royal Kong Tek (Gongde) ceremony was held, presided by HM King Vajiralongkorn at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall and was led by monks from the Thai Chinese Buddhist community in the Bangkok area. The service was in keeping with Chinese Buddhist rites and customs regarding the dead. The Kong Tek ceremony was a Buddhist religious ceremony unique to the Chinese wherein the deceased, together with his personal effects and clothing, was transferred ceremonially to the next life, with special prayers and chants sung by monks. The event was unprecedented since it was the first time such a ritual was held for any member of the Thai royal family in an official capacity. ^[31]

Cremation

The Royal Crematorium during construction, as seen on 27 April 2017.

Renovation of chariots and palanquins in April 2017 at the Bangkok National Museum for the funeral processions in October 2017.

The public square Sanam Luang will be used as the cremation ground, where the construction of an elaborate, temporary crematorium will be started in early-2017 and will take more than one year to complete.^[32] The construction will cost the taxpayer one billion baht.^[33] Once the cremation is over, the crematorium will be torn down.^[34]

Designs for the cremation complex were officially unveiled on 28 October, and a special ceremony was held on 19 December for the royal funeral chariots to be used at the Bangkok National Museum.^[35][36][37] The construction work for the complex will officially commence on 27 February 2017 with the building of the central column with a September target completion date.^[38][39] The crematorium, when built, will be the biggest, largest and tallest yet since the state cremation rites for King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) in 1911, and unlike past state cremations, will be at the larger northern segment of the Sanam Luang Royal Square instead of the southern segment where cremations were held before.^[40]

On 19 November the Ministry of Culture's Fine Arts Department head Anant Chuchote visited Nakhon Pathom, where the royal funeral urns have been manufactured for centuries out of old sandalwood trees. He asked for public support and assistance for the making of the royal urn alongside 150 artisans from the Traditional Arts Office.^[41] The department issued a job hiring call in the middle of January 2017 for prospective workers in the Sanam Luang royal crematorium complex and for the needed chariot repair and upgrading works.^[42]

As of 12 February 2017, the government pavilion and the Buddhist chapel were under construction. Concurrently, the Royal Thai Army began manufacturing a new royal cannon chariot for the state cremation ceremonies, a first, timed to be completed in April 2017 for delivery to the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture.^[43] The designs of the buildings combine both Thai traditional and modern building design and construction methods.^[44]

The construction process for the royal crematiorium itself commenced with due ceremony on the morning of 27 February 2017 in the Sanam Luang Plaza, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Thailand Gen (ret) Prayut Chan-o-cha. At the right moment, the central steel beam of the building was hoisted using a crane towards its spot in the plaza worksite after a Buddhist blessing was bestowed on it.^[45]

By 1 April, the crematorium complex area had seen construction work faster than the usual practice for royal cremations, with all buildings in the middle of the construction phrase earlier than expected. The FAD had also been tasked to undergo a major design remodeling for the main royal urn to be used in the ceremonies and an October date is expected to be chosen for the events.^[46][47] The cannon chariot which was based on those used in British state and royal funerals was officially finished by the end of the month and delivered to the FAD so that the decoration process can begin in time for their debut in the funeral events later in the year.^[48]

The national cremation in the Sanam Luang Plaza will take place on 26 October 2017, 13 days after the 1st anniversary of the King's death. On that day, just as in past state cremations since 1995, a special Khon performance will be held in the plaza grounds, organized by The Foundation of the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand (SUPPORT) and the Bunditphatthanasilpa Institute.^[49] Given the huge importance of such an event, the official practice runs for this began as early as 15-16 May with the RTA Ordnance Division spearheading the runs simulating the funeral procession of the major chariots at Saraburi province, with two military vehicles to serve as simulators.^[50]

The Nation reported on 11 May that the funeral crematorium and the monastic pavillion are almost ready for an early completion, the fastest yet for royal funerals in the modern era, and the prefabrication processes for the decorations to be used in the buildings are at the final stage.^[51] At the same time, the sandalwood corn flowers used for state funerals are being made to be used by citizens and foreign attendants attending the services, as the kalamet flowers, protected by law, will only be used in the royal crematorium.^[52] The practice of making flowers from corn leaves, through, was a modern practice which began in 1925 during the state funeral of King Vajiravudh (Rama VII).

Timeline of the national cremation

• 15 May to 29 September - practice runs for the chariot carriers, drivers and rope holders in Saraburi
• May 23 - 1st Service of Holy Merit at the Royal Plaza, Bangkok
• June 9 - 2nd Service of Holy Merit at the Royal Plaza, Bangkok
• First to third weeks of October - general practice runs in Bangkok
• October 25 - final night vigil service before the Royal Urn and Coffin at the Dusit Maha Phasat Throne Hall of the Grand Palace, Bangkok
• October 26 - national cremation services
  • 6am (UTC+07:00): midday service and lunch by monks
  • 7am - 12am: funeral procession from the Dusit Maha Phasat Throne Hall to the Royal Crematorium at the Sanam Luang Royal Plaza
  • 6pm: sunset memorial service
  • 7pm: ceremonial first lighting of the funeral pyre and final honours by the 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, King's Own Bodyguard and the 1st Artillery Battalion, King's Guard on behalf of the Royal Thai Armed Forces (three-volley salute and 21-gun salute)
  • 10pm royal cremation proper and outdoor Khon performances, puppet show and musical concert^[53][54]
• October 27: day of the removal of the royal ashes and relics (Śarīras)
  • 7am: removal of the royal ashes and relics from the crematorium followed by a breakfast service
  • 10am: royal procession of the transfer of the royal ashes and relics to the Dusit Maha Phasat Throne Hall of the Grand Palace
• October 28
  • 11:30am: final service before the royal relics and lunch
  • 1:00pm: Transfer of the royal relics to the Chakkri Maha Prasat Throne Hall

Mourning

King's portrait displayed at Sanam Luang for public mourning

Thai people wait for pay homage to the King's body which lay in state at Phra Thinang Dusit Maha Prasat.

The government declared a year-long mourning period for Bhumibol. Citizens were asked to refrain from participating in "joyful events" and entertainment for 30 days following his death; as a result, a number of events, including sports (such as the Thai League football season, which ended entirely),^[55] were cancelled or postponed. Entertainment outlets such as cinemas, nightclubs and theatres announced that they would shut down or operate under reduced hours during this period.^[56][57][58] The mourning period prompted concerns from Thailand's tourism industry, which felt that the mood of the country, as well as the cancelled events, would reduce interest in visiting Thailand.^[57]

Upon the announcement of his death, all television channels suspended regular programming and simulcast special programmes from the television pool of Thailand, which consisted of monochrome videos and photos of Bhumibol, and coverage of royal events. International channels were also blacked out and replaced by this programming. Following the funeral procession on 14 October 2016, the channels continued to air the pooled tribute content until midnight local time, after which they were allowed to resume regular programming. However, for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, all broadcasters were forbidden from broadcasting programmes that featured "any element of entertainment, dancing, joy, violence, impoliteness or overly expressed emotion", nor any non-official information, speculation or criticism related to the deceased King and his successor. Most Thai media outlets and websites switched to greyscale colour schemes as well.^[59][60]

Out of respect for the mourning, many Thai malls, including all Central Pattana and The Mall Group properties, chose not to install extensive Christmas displays and decorations for the holiday season. Some installed memorials to Bhumibol instead.^[61]

Reactions

Aftermath

Since the death of the king, ultra-royalists in Thailand have criticized and harassed those who did not wear mourning black.^[62]

They also subjected to witch-hunts people whom they accused of disrespecting the deceased monarch. On 14 October 2016, angry ultra-royalist groups in Phuket Province thronged the residence of a man who posted on social media a number of comments which they thought offensive to the late king and violated the lèse-majesté law, despite the local police having declared that the comments were not in breach of the law. The groups dispersed after the police agreed to prosecute the man for the crime of lèse-majesté.^[63][64] Similar incidents happened on the following day in Phang Nga Province.^[62]

In November 2016, Nangrong School in Buriram Province seized colourful winter jackets from students and required them to wear those in mourning colours only. The students were reportedly distressed to lose their jackets due to the cold weather, and many did not own multiple warm articles of clothing.^[65]

On 28 November, the director of a public school in Ranong Province was removed from office for not wearing mourning black on her first day at work.^[66]

The National Council for Peace and Order, the junta ruling Thailand, also announced after the death of Bhumibol that it will hunt down lèse-majesté fugitives.^[67]

References

Further reading

• Head, Jonathan (16 October 2016). "Thai king's death: Who holds power now?". BBC. Retrieved 16 October 2016. 
• "Thailand King Bhumibol's death , after 70 years of reign". Death-notices.co.uk. London: Interpress. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016. 

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