By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej has made a brief appearance at a Coronation Day ceremony -- a rare outing by the revered 87-year-old monarch, who has been confined to a Bangkok hospital extensively since 2009.
The longest reigning monarch in the world was greeted Tuesday by hundreds of people waving Thailand’s national flag and shouting “Long live the King” during his arrival at the Grand Palace, and departure around 20 minutes later.
He sat in a wheelchair next to a massive elevated golden throne while attending Buddhist prayers at the throne hall alongside his only son Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and second daughter Princess Sirindhorn.
Queen Sirikit, 83, did not attend the ceremony. She has been hospitalized since 2012 in Siriraj Hospital -- the same institution treating her husband – and suffered a stroke that July, but the royal household did not publish bulletins about her health for over a year.
Looking frail Tuesday, the king did not speak or smile during the ceremony, and only looked at privy councilors, high-ranking military leaders and civil servants -- all clad in white uniforms -- including junta-leader-cum-Prime-Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The celebration commemorated the 65th anniversary of Bhumibol’s coronation ceremony in 1950 when he ascended the throne to succeed his brother, found dead with a bullet wound to his head in his bedroom in June 1946. Details of the death of Ananda Mahidol have never been fully explained.
Vajiralongkorn, who is expected to ascend the throne following his father’s death, offered donations to monks during the ceremony.
The king left with Sirindhorn when the Buddhist part of the ritual ended, while Vajiralongkorn remained for the Brahmanic section during which Brahman priests blew into large conch shells and sprinkled lustral water on the golden throne.
Bhumibol has repeatedly been placed under medical care since being hospitalized for flu and pneumonia in 2009. He was diagnosed with an intestinal inflammation in 2011 before suffering subdural bleeding in the front of his brain the following year. He had his gall bladder removed last October.
A public appearance planned for his birthday ceremony in December was canceled on last minute medical advice, raising public concern over the deterioration of his health.
He has briefly left the hospital twice in recent weeks, once to visit the palace – which had been the king’s official residence until Bhumibol’s reign -- in April and again to view the Chao Phraya river crossing Bangkok earlier this month.
Anxiety over the succession of King Bhumibol has been mounting recently amid his declining health.
Bhumibol is seen as key to the stability of Thailand, where he holds a revered, quasi-religious status.
His son Vajiralongkorn – whose third wife relinquished her title last year -- is next in line to the throne but is far less popular than his father, who is viewed as a unifying figure.
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