Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej

Illness and death

King Bhumibol Adulyadej had been treated at Siriraj Hospital since 3 October 2014. The king had a high fever due to a blood infection. His health improved after his doctor gave him antibiotics. Until 28 September 2016, he had a low grade fever and pneumonitis. His doctor then treated him with antibiotics and hemodialysis owing to hypotension. His health later worsened due to a liver infection, and his condition remained unstable.

The king died at the hospital on 13 October 2016 at 15:52 local time, as announced by the Bureau of the Royal Household later that day. Journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall reported the king's death hours before the official announcement.

Funeral

On 14 October 2016, the body of the late king was carried by an autocade from Siriraj Hospital to the Grand Palace. His body left Gate 8 of the hospital around 16:30. As the cortege passed Arun Ammarin Road, Phra Pin Klao Bridge, and Ratchadamnoen Road, crowds of Thais, most clad in black and many openly sobbing, paid homage. Led by Somdej Phra Vanarata (Chun Brahmagutto), the abbot of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, the autocade entered the palace via Thewaphirom Gate. Upon arrival at the palace, the body was given the bathing rite, presided over by the late king's son, King Vajiralongkorn. The event was live broadcast on television by the television pool of Thailand.

The general public were allowed to take part in a symbolic bathing rite in front of the king's portrait at Sahathai Samakhom Pavilion within the Grand Palace later that day.

Foreign dignitaries who attended the lying-in-state:

Special nationwide services in all Buddhist temples together with a general 100th day memorial service were held to mark the 100 day mark since his death on 20 January 2017 with HM King Vajiralongkorn presiding over the national service.

On 28 February 2017, a special Royal Gong De (Kong Tek) ceremony was held, presided by HM King Vajiralongkorn at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall and was led by monks from the Thai Chinese Buddhist community in the Bangkok area. The service was in keeping with Chinese Buddhist rites and customs regarding the dead. The Gong De ceremony was a Buddhist religious ceremony unique to the Chinese wherein the deceased, together with his personal effects and clothing, was transferred ceremonially to the next life, with special prayers and chants sung by monks.

Cremation

The public square Sanam Luang will be used as the cremation ground, where the construction of an elaborate, temporary crematorium will be started in early-2017 and will take more than one year to complete. The construction will cost the taxpayer one billion baht. Once the cremation is over, the crematorium will be torn down.

Designs for the cremation complex were officially unveiled on 28 October, and a special ceremony was held on 19 December for the royal funeral chariots to be used at the Bangkok National Museum. The construction work for the complex will officially commence on 27 February 2017 with the building of the central column with a September target completion date. The crematorium, when built, will be the biggest, largest and tallest yet since the state cremation rites for King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) in 1911, and unlike past state cremations, will be at the larger northern segment of the Sanam Luang Royal Square instead of the southern segment where cremations were held before.

On 19 November the Ministry of Culture's Fine Arts Department head Anant Chuchote visited Nakhon Pathom, where the royal funeral urns have been manufactured for centuries out of old sandalwood trees. He asked for public support and assistance for the making of the royal urn alongside 150 artisans from the Traditional Arts Office. The department issued a job hiring call in the middle of January 2017 for prospective workers in the Sanam Luang royal crematorium complex and for the needed chariot repair and upgrading works.

As of 12 February 2017, the government pavilion and the Buddhist chapel were under construction. Concurrently, the Royal Thai Army began manufacturing a new royal cannon chariot for the state cremation ceremonies, a first, timed to be completed in April 2017 for delivery to the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture. The designs of the buildings combine both Thai traditional and modern building design and construction methods.

The construction process for the royal crematiorium itself commenced with due ceremony on the morning of 27 February 2017 in the Sanam Luang Plaza, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Thailand Gen (ret) Prayut Chan-o-cha. At the right moment, the central steel beam of the building was hoisted using a crane towards its spot in the plaza worksite after a Buddhist blessing was bestowed on it.

Mourning

The government declared a year-long mourning period for Bhumibol. Citizens were asked to refrain from participating in "joyful events" and entertainment for 30 days following his death; as a result, a number of events, including sports (such as the Thai League football season, which ended entirely), were cancelled or postponed. Entertainment outlets such as cinemas, nightclubs and theatres announced that they would shut down or operate under reduced hours during this period. The mourning period prompted concerns from Thailand's tourism industry, which felt that the mood of the country, as well as the cancelled events, would reduce interest in visiting Thailand.

Upon the announcement of his death, all television channels suspended regular programming and simulcast special programmes from the television pool of Thailand, which consisted of monochrome videos and photos of Bhumibol, and coverage of royal events. International channels were also blacked out and replaced by this programming. Following the funeral procession on 14 October 2016, the channels continued to air the pooled tribute content until midnight local time, after which they were allowed to resume regular programming. However, for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, all broadcasters were forbidden from broadcasting programmes that featured "any element of entertainment, dancing, joy, violence, impoliteness or overly expressed emotion", nor any non-official information, speculation or criticism related to the deceased King and his successor. Most Thai media outlets and websites switched to grey scale colour schemes as well.

To mark the mourning period even Thai shopping malls reduced their Christmas displays as a mark of respect, while planning to install memorial displays in the late-King's memory.

Aftermath

Since the death of the king, ultra-royalists in Thailand have criticized and harassed those who did not wear mourning black.

They also subjected to witch-hunts people whom they accused of disrespecting the deceased monarch. On 14 October 2016, angry ultra-royalist groups in Phuket Province thronged the residence of a man who posted on social media a number of comments which they thought offensive to the late king and violated the lèse-majesté law, despite the local police having declared that the comments were not in breach of the law. The groups dispersed after the police agreed to prosecute the man for the crime of lèse-majesté. Similar incidents happened on the following day in Phang Nga Province.

In November 2016, Nangrong School in Buriram Province seized colourful winter jackets from students and required them to wear those in mourning colours only. The students were reportedly distressed to lose their jackets due to the cold weather, and many did not own multiple warm articles of clothing.

On 28 November, the director of a public school in Ranong Province was removed from office for not wearing mourning black on her first day at work.

The National Council for Peace and Order, the junta ruling Thailand, also announced after the death of Bhumibol that it will hunt down lèse-majesté fugitives.