RIP King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) of Thailand

The King of Thailand has died at age 88.

He was the longest-reigning head of state in the world, having held the throne since 1949, and has been all but deified by the Thai state for decades now.

He is being succeeded by his son, the 64-year-old Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X).

I don’t believe the king has much actual power in the Thai government, but he’s definitely a figure of reverence, and his passing is sure to cause a good degree of uproar there.

I hope that Siam Sam will be reporting presently to let us know what the mood is.

Siam Sam does not live in Thailand anymore. I do. Mods please merge with this thread.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=807202

They announced on TV just now 1 year of wearing black for government officials and 1 month all bars closed for mourning period. It’s a huge huge event here.

Thailand’s beem teetering on the brink for a while. Watch for the shit to hit the fan. If I were in Thailand, I’d get out.

I am so sorry to read this news, though I knew it was coming, and have be following the situation closely. I am greatly saddened that it has come to pass. And my heart goes out to the people of Thailand who so devotedly loved their King.

Think I’ll go change into something pink, maybe drop by the Buddhist temple this afternoon, light some insence.

Thanks but I’m not. I have various commitments here and I hope for the best.

EDIT: (not yet at least… of course I am monitoring situation carefully)

Does that include tourist areas? Because I can see some potential problems there.

No one knows yet, this literally just happened 1.5 hours ago. The needs of tourists are not high on the priorities of Thai people right now.

I’m pretty sure that the tourists’ money always is. Shutting down the Thai tourist industry for one month will do how many billions of dollars of damage to the economy?

Ok imagine this. Imagine that George Washington had just died but that for the last 50 years he’d been retired but just had to occasionally say a few words to put things on the right track. That’s probably close to the amount of respect that the people had for the King here.

If it’s costs them billions they won’t care, this is not about money. In a very real sense he is the father of the modern country.

Well, now Queen Elizabeth II knows the number she needs to beat to break “longest reign” records.

I’m living in Hawaii again now. But seeing as I do plan future trips to Thailand, and considering my personal views on the monarchy and this king, I’ll not be making any comments.

She might be able to break the record for latter-day monarchs, but historically, there have been others with even longer reigns.

So it seems the restriction is on “festivities” for 30 days. Night clubs will be closed and no live music performances will be held for 30 days, Bangkok’s “entertainment zones” eg Cowboy and Nana definitely closed for 30 days. No one seems to know yet if its all bars and if alcohol sales will be completely prohibited. I’m guessing a lot of shops might voluntarily stop selling alcohol even if it’s not required.

All TV stations have stopped regularly programming and instead showing only black and white footage related to the event. All Thai based websites have changed to black and white, not only news sites but also shopping sites and internet banking. Have even changed all the product images on shopping sites to black and white. Not sure if this was known in advance, otherwise I’m guessing a lot of web developers were very busy last night.

I read that Queen Sirikit has been ailing for a while and hasn’t been seen much in public in recent years, so she probably won’t be at the funeral or other ceremonies?

And I never knew about King Bhumibol succeeding to the throne after his brother’s death. What a story!

All Calm in Bangkok, body is going through the streets to the grand palace later today so traffic will in chaos. Government declared a public holiday. Everyone is wearing either black or white on the streets, or dark blue, not one single bright color.

TV stations to return to regular programming at midnight but they’ve been asked to not show any “entertainment” programs, eg soap opera etc. Will be interesting to see what they do run. However Cinema’s are closed today but opening again tomorrow and seem like they’ll be showing their usual choices. Seems like the Alcohol ban is so far only tomorrow (which is a buddhist holiday anyway).

However the seedier side of Bangkok will remain firmly closed for the full 30 days it seems.

I doubt she’s going to last until 2034 to break the record. But give her another five years and she’ll at least break the top 20.

Well yes but she can break the record for longest reigning monarch in a country with more than five million people. The top 11 on that list are all pretty tiny, one of them had a population of 58,000. Really most people wouldn’t consider that a King, more like a Baron or a Duke, and in Colonial India they weren’t Kings, they were ‘Princely states’. Eg just taking a quick look it doesn’t seem like “Phaltan State” on that list was really a sovereign state, it was subordinate to other powers.

It’s quite possible she can beat the record of Louis XIV given the longevity or her mother and the excellent medical care she has.

So it seems like the developing etiquette is drink if you want to, but don’t make a display in public of listening to music, laughing, dancing or partying, and wear dark / muted colors when in public. In private of course do what you want. This will probably last 2 or 3 weeks, lets see.

Overall pretty reasonable considering the circumstances and the very least you should do to show respect for the country you are in.

I seem to recall that people in Thailand could get in trouble for not standing before movies when an image of the king was shown. Is that correct? Is there any potential problems for somebody not being ‘solemn’ enough?

Yes they play the national anthem when movies start, together with footage of the King ( his majesty that has just passed) and you are expected to stand then. However I’ve never heard of anyone getting arrested for not standing, it’s more a case that everyone around you would think you are extremely rude and in the worse case you might be asked to leave the venue, but for a foreigner even that is extremely unlikely. Thai’s don’t really expect a foreigner to know these things and don’t hold it against them, but they appreciate it when you do show respect.