Preparations for the royal cremation Bhumibol

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has notified all Thai embassies and consulates of King Bhumibol's official cremation on Thursday, October 26. It has been requested to give Thai people living abroad the opportunity to follow this historic event or to celebrate these traditional ceremonies in Buddhist temples.

The ceremonies will be broadcast live on all television channels. Not only on the aforementioned Thursday, October 26, which is also a day off, but on all 5 days, the ceremonies will be broadcast on Thai channels from Wednesday, October 25. There was also talk of planning another day off around this Thursday, so that more people have the opportunity to travel from the provinces to Bangkok to experience the ceremonies up close.

The complex and ritualistic ceremony will take place over five days. It will begin on day one with a ceremony at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall at the Grand Palace. The body of the deceased monarch will be laid in state there. The next day, his body will be taken from the throne hall to the royal crematorium at Sanam Luang, where he will be cremated.

On the third day, a ceremony will be held to collect the cremated remains at Sanam Luang. On the fourth day, another ceremony will be held for the remains of late King Bhumibol at Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall. Finally on the fifth day, a meal will be provided to the monks in the throne room. A ceremony will also be held as the urn containing the remains of the monarch is transferred to the Chakri Maha Prasat Throne at the Grand Palace, where it will be given a final place.

Given the expected crowds, Bangkok could suffer a traffic jam and it is hoped that some groups will not use the crowd for other purposes, see Manchester, South Thailand and recently in Bangkok.