King's Bhumibol's funeral ceremony ends year-long mourning in Thailand

泰王普密蓬葬禮結束一年的哀弔

Thais bade farewell to their late King Bhumibol.


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Thailand has officially ended the year of mourning for its late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, followed by an elaborate and lavish five-day funeral with a Buddhist religious ceremony attended by senior members of the royal family.

Thailand has observed a year of mourning for King Bhumibol, who was regarded as a pillar of stability during a reign of seven decades that witnessed political upheaval and rapid development in the South-east Asian nation.

Mourners had donned just black in the past year to mourn the death of their beloved king. Many of them went to Bangkok last week to pay their last respects to King Bhumibol, who died at the age of 88 in October 2016.

The official end of the mourning period was marked on Monday by the taking down of black-and-white funeral bunting that had hung on the gates of Bangkok's Government House for a year.

The royal crematorium that was used for the cremation ceremony of King Bhumibol Adulyadej last week will be open to the public from today (2 Nov) until the end of the month.