BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who oversaw royal projects that supported the rural poor, preserved traditional craft-making and protected the environment, died Friday. She was 93 years old.
The Royal Bureau announced that she died at a hospital in Bangkok, adding that she began suffering from a blood infection on October 17 and that her condition did not improve despite the efforts of the medical team. She suffered a stroke in 2012 and has largely disappeared from public life since then due to declining health. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn has ordered her funeral to be held with the highest honors and instructed members of the royal family and servants to mourn for a year, the agency said in a statement.
Mourners gathered outside Chulalongkorn Hospital on Saturday morning after hearing the news of his death.
“It’s another big loss for the whole country. When I heard it at 4am, I almost fainted. It was like the whole world stopped,” said Manerat Raowarat, 67.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Saturday that Mr Sirikit’s death was a “huge loss for the country”. He said the national flag would be flown at all government offices for 30 days and civil servants would be in mourning for a year.
Sirikit was loved and influential in her own right, although she was overshadowed by her late husband and his son, the current king. Her portraits are displayed in homes, offices and public spaces across Thailand, and her birthday on August 12th is celebrated as Mother’s Day. Her work has ranged from supporting Cambodian refugees to saving parts of the country’s once lush forests from destruction.
Thailand’s monarchy has traditionally avoided playing an overt role in politics, but speculation about Mr. Sirikit’s views and behind-the-scenes influence has increased amid political upheaval in recent decades, marked by two military takeovers and several rounds of bloody street protests. When she publicly attended the funeral of a protester killed in a clash with police in 2008, many saw her as siding with the political divide.
Sirikit met the king while living in Europe.
Sirikit Kitiyakara was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Bangkok on August 12, 1932, when the absolute monarchy was replaced by a constitutional system. Both her parents were related to early kings of the current Chakri dynasty.
She attended school in wartime Bangkok, a target of Allied air raids, and after World War II, she moved with her diplomat father to France, where she served as ambassador.
At age 16, she met Thailand’s new king in Paris, where she was studying music and languages. Their friendship began when Bhumibol moved to Switzerland, where he was studying, to help care for him after he was involved in a near-fatal car accident. The king wooed her with poetry, composing a waltz called “I Dream of You.”
The two married in 1950, and at their coronation ceremony later that year, they both swore to “rule with justice and for the benefit and well-being of the Siamese people.”
The couple have four children, the current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Princess Ubolratana, Princess Sirindhorn, and Princess Chulabhorn.
Early in their married life, the Thai royals traveled the world as goodwill ambassadors and forged personal bonds with world leaders.
Thailand’s rural transformation
However, by the early 1970s, the king and queen began to focus most of their energy on Thailand’s domestic problems, including rural poverty, opium addiction among the hill tribes, and communist insurgency.
An impeccable dresser and avid shopper, the Queen also enjoyed climbing hills and visiting rustic villages where older women called her “daughter.”
Thousands of people raised issues with her ranging from marital disputes to serious illnesses, and the queen and her assistants took up many issues privately.
Although some in Bangkok rumored her involvement in palace intrigue and her lavish lifestyle, her popularity in the countryside persisted.
“There is a misunderstanding between the rural people and the wealthy, so-called civilized people of Bangkok. The rural people of Thailand say they are ignored, and we try to bridge the gap by spending time with them in remote areas,” she said in a 1979 Associated Press interview.
Royal development projects were established throughout Thailand, some of which were initiated and directly supervised by the Queen.
In 1976, the Queen established a foundation to promote traditional Thai handicrafts. The SUPPORT Foundation has trained thousands of villagers in crafts such as silk weaving, jewelery making, painting and pottery.
She also established a wildlife breeding center, a “public zoo” and a hatchery to save endangered sea turtles. The “Her Forest Loves Water” and “Little House in the Forest” projects sought to demonstrate the economic benefits of protecting forest cover and water sources.
While royal families in other countries had only ceremonial or symbolic roles, Queen Sirikit believed that the monarchy was an important institution in Thailand.
“Some people in the university think the monarchy is outdated. But I think Thailand needs an understanding monarch,” she said in a 1979 interview. “If you say, ‘The King is coming,’ thousands of people will gather.
“There’s something magical about the mere word king. It’s amazing.”
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Associated Press journalist David Rising in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report. Dennis D. Gray served as Bangkok bureau chief for many years until his retirement.
