Sawt Falasteen - Year-long funeral starts for Thailand's former queen Sirikit

Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide.

Former queen Sirikit, the mother of the current King Vajiralongkorn and wife of the longest-reigning monarch, died Friday at the age of 93.

Sirikit's body was carried in a slow-moving ambulance from Chulalongkorn Hospital late on Sunday afternoon, flanked by motorbike outriders on a 10-kilometre (six-mile) procession to the Grand Palace.

Crowds of nurses clasped their hands and bowed as the convoy passed, while other spectators clutched portraits of the queen or wept as ranks of saluting police officers fell to one knee.

"I want to send her off for the last time, on her last journey, as one of her children -- as a Thai who loves and respects her," 56-year-old Boontham Kornwaen told AFP outside the hospital.

The former queen's body will lie in state at the seat of the Thai royalty for one year before cremation.

Black and white tributes to the royal matriarch were beamed onto towering billboards, on TVs in supermarkets and hotel lobbies and as pop-up notices on Thai banking apps.

Television newscasters wore black and media websites turned monochrome, while citizens have been asked to dress in muted colours and curtail celebratory public events for 90 days.

Tanaburdee Srimuang kept a vigil outside the Grand Palace since confirmation of Sirikit's death broke in the early hours of Saturday.

"I am not tired," the 24-year-old told AFP. "I am happy to be here for her for the last time."

About half of the people in a supermarket and on a shopping street in central Bangkok were wearing the traditional Thai mourning colours of black or white, an AFP journalist saw.

K-pop supergroup Blackpink went ahead with sold-out weekend shows at Bangkok's 50,000-seat Rajamangala National Stadium, but attendees were asked "to wear black attire as a mark of mourning".

- 'Mother of the Nation' -

Throughout her 66-year marriage to king Bhumibol Adulyadej, Sirikit carved a reputation as a glamorous fashionista and the nation's caring mother figure.

Some Western media compared Sirikit to former US first lady Jackie Kennedy.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul delayed his departure to Malaysia on Saturday for a summit of ASEAN leaders to sign a peace deal with Cambodia, witnessed by US President Donald Trump.

But he still jetted out for a quick turnaround endorsement of the pact, made after cross-border clashes in July killed more than 40 people and forced around 300,000 to flee their homes.

"I send my condolences to the Great People of Thailand," Trump posted on social media, en route to Malaysia where the pact was signed on Sunday.

The lengthy reign of Sirikit's husband, from 1946 until 2016, was bookended by World War II and Trump's first election win.

Though Vajiralongkorn inherited the throne about nine years ago, many still revere Bhumibol as the nation's most steadfast figurehead -- and Sirikit as his constant companion.

She retired from the public eye in recent years, her privacy sealed by strict lese majeste laws that limit what can be reported about the royal family.

Sirikit had "suffered several illnesses" while hospitalised since 2019, including a blood infection this month, the palace said in a statement.

But in her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, she mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley.

At home, she was referred to as the "Mother of the Nation" and her birthday was designated the country's Mother's Day.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST