BANGKOK — Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn will be crowned next weekend in elaborate ceremonies estimated to cost up to $31.2 million.
A series of intricate ceremonies held between May 4 and 6 will mark the first coronation in nearly 70 years, the first and probably the only coronation in a lifetime for most Thais.
The excitement is rife, as many Thais, especially royalists and government officials, have been wearing yellow shirts, the color associated with royalism, since the beginning of April in an apparent move to welcome the upcoming occasion.
Up to 200,000 Thais from all over the country are estimated to gather in Bangkok to line up the 4-mile procession route to see their newly crowned king.
The 66-year-old became king when his late father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016 after seven decades on the throne.
Vajiralongkorn attributed the reason for the initial delay of his coronation to the mourning for his late father, who was deeply revered as a father figure and moral authority, but has never given a reason for the continued delay, nor had he named the date until the beginning of this year.
As Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country with some Hindu influences, the ceremonies, most of which will take place at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and will be broadcast on live television, will be a blend of Buddhist and Hindu rites, in accordance with a belief that Thai kings are reincarnations of Vishnu, a Hindu god.
The king will crown himself with a 16-pound multitiered crown made of gold and diamonds dating back over two centuries on May 4, one day ahead of the anniversary of Bhumibol’s coronation on May 5, 1950.
But unlike in the West, the heart of the coronation will not be the bestowal of the crown itself, but instead what makes a king in the Thai tradition lies in a bathing rite and the anointment.
As part of the first and most important coronation ritual, Vajiralongkorn will partake in a purification bath where holy water collected from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand is poured over his head through a canopy as a gesture to offer him sovereignty, with a fanfare of drums, trumpets and traditional Thai music being played in the background.
Then, he will sit on an octagonal throne to be anointed with water collected from more than 100 sources across the country from each of the eight cardinal directions, before being presented with the nine-tiered white umbrella, the most important item in the set of royal regalia and the symbol of a consecrated king.
After being crowned on a different throne, the king will utter an oath, before assuming his residency at the Grand Palace in another rite.
