The lighting of the funeral pyre late yesterday night (Oct 26), which was held behind closed doors, closed the book on the 70-year reign of a monarch who was elevated to saint-like status.
The grand send-off, held a year after King Bhumibol died aged 88, was a spectacular show of the enigmatic rituals that gird a powerful monarchy cloaked in myth and spirituality.
Today, King Bhumibol’s son and successor, 65-year-old King Maha Vajiralongkorn, ascended the steps of the glistening crematorium complex to select relics from his father’s ashes.
The monarch poured fragrant water on the pile of remains, before using his hands to place bits of bone into six golden, diamond-encrusted urns that will be moved in procession to the Grand Palace later today.
“After the religious ceremony... all the six urns will be put into a fourth procession to go back to Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall and the golden stupa inside the temple of Emerald Buddha,” said an official announcer describing the ceremony.
The five-day funeral, which ends Sunday (Oct 29) and cost some $90 million dollars (B1.66 billion), has seized the attention of a nation where love for King Bhumibol runs deep.
More than 300,000 mourners in black crammed into Bangkok’s old quarter to watch the colourful procession yesterday that carried his funeral urn to the sprawling purpose-built crematorium.
Many wept and prostrated as the gilded urn passed.
Others around the country have tuned in to televised broadcasts of the processions, monk-led rituals and traditional music and performances marking Bhumibol’s send-off to heaven.
But the funeral's climax – the lighting of the pyre – was not broadcast live as most media were whisked away from the area.
Later in the evening smoke could be seen rising from the illuminated funeral pyre.