After two and a half years of sitting on the throne, was held Saturday at the Grand Palace in the Thai capital Bangkok, crowned the king of the country Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The three-day ceremony began with the king wearing a white dress, sacred water brought from more than 100 different sources from around Thailand to wipe his face at the Grand Palace compound as a symbol of royal power, amid artillery fire on the occasion and the hymns of Buddhist monks.
The king wore the great multi-layered crown of victory weighing 7.3 kg, made of gold and studded with diamonds, dating back more than two centuries, at the first royal coronation ceremony in Thailand in nearly 70 years.
| Sutida, who was married by the king three days ago and headed by Queen (Reuters) |
Her fourth wife, Queen Sutida, who married her at a surprise ceremony three days before his coronation, bowed in front of him.
Vajiralongkorn, 66, is the tenth Chakri dynasty to rule Thailand since 1782 and reached the throne two and a half years after the death of his father Baumibol Adulyadej in October 2016. But he waited until the end of the long mourning period before he set the date for his coronation.
"I will continue to rule, preserve and expand justice for the benefit of the people," the king said in the first royal pledge after the coronation, almost the same as the oath made by his father, the late king of the country some 70 years ago.
| The king wore a crown weighing about 7.3 kg of gold inlaid with diamonds (Reuters) |
31 million dollars
The cost of the three-day coronation is about $ 31 million, a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu rites according to Buddhist traditions in Thailand, and the belief that the country's kings embody a Hindu god called Vishnu.
Since the beginning of April, the country's population has been encouraged to wear yellow shirts on the occasion, a color linked to ownership in Thailand.
About 150,000 people from around the country are expected to greet the "crown prince" during a seven-kilometer procession around the old part of Bangkok on Sunday and then in front of the Grand Palace where the king is scheduled to view them from one of the palace balconies on Monday.
| Some 150,000 people from across the country take part in the "Crown King" salute during a seven-kilometer procession (Getty Images) |
The 48-year-old Thai flew a distance of 640 kilometers on foot from Surat Thani, south of the country, to Bangkok for the coronation ceremony, local television station TN 24 said.
On the eve of the coronation, the king pardoned some 50,000 prisoners across Thailand, including prominent student activist Gattobat Bunpatararksa, accused of defaming the king.