(Reuters/TBI Africa.com) Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, on Friday conducted final rituals in preparation for a three-day elaborate coronation ceremony.
Part of the activities lined up for the ceremony is the pardoning and release of some prisoners.
The coronation, which takes place from Saturday to Monday, will be the first the country has seen in 69 years, since his father, the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was crowned in 1950.
King Vajiralongkorn, 66, is also known by the title of King Rama X.
He became a constitutional monarch after the death of his revered father in October 2016, after 70 years on the throne.
The king had on Friday, visited the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, to pay respects to one of Thailand’s most sacred Buddhist relics.
“Long live the king,’’ chanted a group of people dressed in yellow, an auspicious colour in Thailand, as the king and his new queen walked on a red carpet to the Grand Palace, shielded from the hot afternoon sun by a big yellow umbrella.
The monarch lit auspicious candles at 4:19 p.m. (9:19 GMT) a time court astrologers determined was favourable, as 80 Buddhist monks chanted.
Yellow is particularly significant as it is the colour of Monday In Thai culture, which is steeped in astrology, the day the king was born, and also the colour of the sun, which represents the monarch in the cosmos.
Thais have been urged to wear yellow until the end of July, the king’s birth month.
Earlier on Friday, a senior palace official transferred a golden plaque inscribed with the king’s official name and title, his horoscope and the royal seal from the Temple to the Grand Palace in preparation for Saturday’s events.
The three items, which were made in a three-hour ritual earlier, will be presented to the king by the chief Brahmin, along with five royal regalia, the symbols of kingship in Thailand.
Ahead of the grand ceremonies, the king said he would grant royal pardon to some prisoners to “give them a chance to become good citizens”, according to the Royal Gazette.
The order, which will take effect on Saturday, listed many criteria of prisoners eligible for the pardon, including those with disabilities, chronic or terminal diseases, or those within a year of completing their sentence.
The king will also reduce sentences for some prisoners, including those imprisoned for life and commute some death sentences to life imprisonment.
It is not clear how many people will qualify for pardons, and the Department of Corrections said it would finalise a list of eligible prisoners and release them or commute their sentences, within 120 days.
The order did not exclude foreigners, nor did it exclude prisoners convicted of insulting the monarchy, a crime known as lese-majeste, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, a prominent student activist who was sentenced in 2017 to two and a half years in jail for sharing a Thai-language BBC profile of the king, is expected to be released in the coming week, his lawyer told Reuters.
Jatupat was the first person to be charged with royal insult after the king formally ascended the throne following the death of King Bhumibol.
His full jail term will be completed on June 19.
