Thailand enters year of mourning following Queen Mother Sirikit’s death

Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, renowned for bringing glamour to the postwar revival of the country’s monarchy and occasionally engaging in political matters, has died at the age of 93, the Thai Royal Office announced.

The palace said Sirikit had been hospitalised since 2019 due to multiple health issues and developed a bloodstream infection on October 17, passing away late on October 24. A one-year mourning period has been declared for members of the royal family and household.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul initially cancelled his trip to the ASEAN leaders’ summit in Malaysia following the Queen Mother’s death. He later decided to attend a ceremony marking a ceasefire with Cambodia, an event expected to be attended by US President Donald Trump.

Sirikit had largely remained out of the public eye since suffering a stroke in 2012. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch, ruled for 70 years from 1946 until his death in 2016.

For many Thais, Queen Mother Sirikit will be remembered for her charitable work and as a symbol of maternal virtue. Her passing is treated with reverence in a country where criticism of the monarchy is strictly prohibited under lese-majesty laws, which can carry prison sentences even for defaming deceased royals.

Born in 1932, the year Thailand transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, Sirikit Kitiyakara was the daughter of Thailand’s ambassador to France and grew up in privilege. While studying music and languages in Paris, she met Bhumibol, who had spent part of his childhood in Switzerland. The couple became engaged in Paris in 1949 and married in Thailand in 1950, when she was 17.

Sirikit collaborated with French designer Pierre Balmain on outfits made from Thai silk and actively promoted the preservation of traditional weaving techniques, playing a key role in revitalising Thailand’s silk industry. For over four decades, she frequently accompanied the king on visits to remote villages, supporting rural development projects that were often broadcast in nightly Royal Bulletins.

She briefly served as regent in 1956 while King Bhumibol spent two weeks at a temple studying to become a Buddhist monk, a rite of passage in Thailand. In 1976, her birthday, 12 August, was designated Mother’s Day and a national holiday.

Her only son, now King Maha Vajiralongkorn, succeeded Bhumibol in 2016, and upon his coronation in 2019, Sirikit assumed the formal title of Queen Mother.

By Tamilla Hasanova