Sirikit’s health had deteriorated and she died in a hospital on Friday evening (local time), the royal palace said. She had suffered from several illnesses in the hospital since 2019, including a blood infection that occurred this month. King Vajiralongkorn has ordered members of the royal family to begin a year-long mourning period, it said.
After Sirikit’s death became known, the authorities ordered mourning flags to be displayed on public buildings for 30 days and citizens were instructed to dress in black. News anchors also wore black clothing. Sirikit’s body will be laid in state at the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul described Sirikit’s death to journalists as a “great loss for the nation.” Because of the bereavement, he postponed his planned departure for the summit of the Asean states on Saturday. However, he still wants to travel there to sign a peace agreement with Cambodia as planned in the presence of US President Donald Trump.
Sirikit’s death is likely to cause deep sadness among a large portion of the Thai population. The king is viewed as the father of the nation and the embodiment of the ideals of Buddhism, the majority religion in the country. In hardly any other country in the world is a head of state so revered; lese majeste is still punished with long prison sentences to this day.
Sirikit was referred to as the “Mother of the Nation” and her birthday was declared Thailand’s Mother’s Day. Speaking to the AFP news agency, shop owner Tanyaporn Armmetha said that after her own parents divorced, she always viewed the royal couple as parental figures. Sirikit showed her “that the Thai people were as important to her as parents are their children.”
King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit had given the centuries-old Thai monarchy a modern image: Sirikit always dressed in a contemporary, elegant manner, and in 1960 the royal couple visited rock’n’roll icon Elvis Presley in the USA. Sirikit has appeared repeatedly on the covers of Western magazines and has been regularly featured on lists of the world’s best-dressed women.
Sirikit was born in Bangkok on August 12, 1932, the daughter of a diplomat, but grew up largely in Europe. Bhumibol met the diplomat’s daughter in Paris while her father was serving as Thai ambassador to France.
Both married in 1950, four years after Bhumibol’s coronation; Sirikit was 17 years old at the time. Their relationship began when Bhumibol was recovering from a car accident in Switzerland.
Together they had four children, including the future King Vajiralongkorn. He ascended the throne after Bhumibol’s death in 2016.
In recent years, Sirikit withdrew from the public eye and battled illness.
From the perspective of former Thai diplomat and monarchy scholar Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Sirikit’s death marks the “end of an era.” She had a deep connection with the population and her death would cause “deep national sadness”. Sirikit’s death could also mark a turning point for the Thai monarchy and lead to reflections on its future role. Thailand’s ruling Chakri dynasty dates back to 1782, but the future of the monarchy in the Southeast Asian country is overshadowed by open questions and conflicts.
In 2020, tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets to demand, in addition to further far-reaching political reforms, changes to the monarchy. Public criticism of the royal family had never been expressed so clearly before.
In addition, the 73-year-old King Vajiralongkorn has not yet publicly clarified his successor. The monarch has seven children, including five sons – but he disinherited four of them. The crown prince and currently the rightful heir to the throne, Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, is 20 years old.
