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ThailandQueen Mother Sirikit, who oversaw royal projects to help the rural poor, preserve traditional craft-making and protect the environment, died on Friday. She was 93 years old.
The Royal Household Bureau said he died in a hospital bangkokShe was suffering from blood infection since October 17, but despite the efforts of the medical team, her condition did not improve. She has been largely absent from public life in recent years due to declining health. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016.
Photos released by the palace for his 88th birthday show his son the King Maha Vajiralongkornand other royals visited the Queen Mother at Chulalongkorn Hospital, where she was receiving long-term care.
Although living in the shadow of her late husband and son, Sirikit was beloved and influential in her own right. His portrait was displayed in homes, offices and public places Thailand, And her birthday of 12 August was celebrated as Mother’s Day. Their activities ranged from helping Cambodian refugees to saving the country’s once lush forests from destruction.
Nevertheless, the role of the monarchy in society became increasingly scrutinized during this period ThailandThe queen also had a role in the political turmoil of the last decades. Stories circulated about his behind-the-scenes influence during a period that saw two military takeovers and several rounds of bloody street protests. And when she publicly attended the funeral of a protester killed during a clash with police, it symbolized for many her taking sides in the political dispute.
Sirikit Kitiyakara was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family bangkok On 12 August 1932, the year the absolute monarchy was replaced by a constitutional system. Both his parents were related to the first kings of the present Chakri dynasty.
She studied in schools during wartime bangkokShe became the target of Allied air raids and, after World War II, moved there with her diplomat father. France, Where he served as ambassador.
At the age of 16, he met the newly appointed King of Thailand ParisWhere she was studying music and languages. Their friendship blossomed after Bhumibol’s fatal car accident and they began living together SwitzerlandTo help take care of where he was studying. King charmed her with the poem and composed a waltz titled “I Dream of You”.
The couple married in 1950, and at a coronation ceremony later that year, both vowed “to rule with righteousness for the benefit and happiness of Siamese (Thai) people.” People,
The couple had four children: the current king Maha Vajiralongkornand princesses Ubolratana, Sirindhorn and Chulabhorn.
During their early married life, the Thai royal family traveled around the world as goodwill ambassadors and formed personal relationships with world leaders.
But by the early 1970s, the king and queen were devoting most of their energies to Thailand’s domestic problems, including rural poverty, opium addiction among hill tribes, and communist insurgency.
Each year, the couple traveled the countryside attending more than 500 royal, religious and state ceremonies.
The Queen, who was a great dresser and avid shopper, also loved climbing hills and entering dirty villages, where older women would call her “beti”.
Thousands of people brought their problems to her, ranging from marital disputes to serious illnesses, and the queen and her assistants took up many of the problems personally.
While some in Bangkok gossiped about her involvement in palace intrigues and her lavish lifestyle, her popularity in the countryside endured.
“Misunderstandings arise between the two People Rich, so-called civilized people in the rural areas and in Bangkok. People in rural Thailand say they are neglected, and we try to fill that gap by living with them in remote areas,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1979.
Royal development projects were established throughout Thailand, some of them initiated and supervised directly by the Queen.
The Queen launched a scheme in 1976 to raise the income of poor rural families and preserve endangered crafts HelpA foundation that has trained thousands of villagers in silk-weaving, jewellery-making, painting, ceramics and other traditional crafts.
Sometimes called the “Green Queen”, she also established wildlife breeding centers, “open zoos”, and hatcheries to save endangered sea turtles. she loves the woods Water and Little House in the Forest projects attempted to demonstrate the economic benefits of preserving forest cover Water Source.
Whereas elsewhere the royal family had only ceremonial or symbolic roles, Queen Sirikit believed that the monarchy was an important institution in Thailand.
He said in a 1979 interview, “There are some people in the universities who think the monarchy is obsolete. But I think Thailand needs a sensible king.” “The king is coming, thousands of people will gather at this call.
“There’s something magic just in the word king. It’s wonderful.”