Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, known for bringing sophistication and grace to the country’s monarchy after World War II and occasionally engaging in politics in later years, passed away at the age of 93, as announced by the Thai Royal Household bureau on Saturday.
Since suffering a stroke in 2012, Sirikit had been absent from public view.
Her spouse, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, holds the record as Thailand’s longest-serving monarch, reigning for 70 years from 1946. Together, they captured the hearts of the nation through their philanthropic endeavors.
While traveling internationally, she captivated the global media with her beauty and sense of style.
During a 1960 trip to the United States that included a formal dinner at the White House, Time magazine described her as “svelte” and “archfeminist.” The French newspaper L’Aurore praised her as “ravishing.”
Born in 1932, the year Thailand transitioned to a constitutional monarchy from an absolute monarchy, Sirikit Kitiyakara was the daughter of Thailand’s ambassador to France and lived a life of privilege and affluence.
While studying music and language in Paris, she met Bhumibol, who had spent part of his youth in Switzerland.
“It was dislike at first sight,” she mentioned in a BBC documentary, recalling that he arrived late to their initial meeting. “Then it turned into love.”
The couple spent time together in Paris and became engaged in 1949. They tied the knot in Thailand a year later when she was 17.
Always fashionable, Sirikit collaborated with French designer Pierre Balmain on striking outfits crafted from Thai silk. By endorsing the preservation of traditional weaving techniques, she is credited with revitalizing Thailand’s silk industry.
For over four decades, she traveled extensively with the king to remote Thai villages, advocating for development projects for the rural underprivileged — their endeavors broadcasted nightly on the country’s Royal Bulletin.
She briefly served as regent in 1956 when her husband spent two weeks in a temple, undergoing Buddhist monk training in a customary Thai rite of passage.
In 1976, her birthday on August 12 was declared Mother’s Day and a national holiday in Thailand.
Her only son, the current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, also known as Rama X, ascended the throne after Bhumibol’s passing in 2016, and at her coronation in 2019, Sirikit was formally recognized as the Queen Mother.
Formally, the Thai monarchy remains ap