Thai King's Formal Coronation Caps Eventful Two Years on Throne

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn will be crowned in an elaborate ceremony on Saturday, capping a busy period in which he displayed a different approach from his father since taking the throne more than two years ago.

A budget of 1 billion baht ($31 million) has been approved for the ceremony and two subsequent days of pageantry and royal appearances. The 66-year-old monarch delayed the formal coronation until after a mourning period following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October 2016.

The ceremony comes at a tumultuous time in Thailand during which Vajiralongkorn has played a prominent role. He issued statements before and after an inconclusive March election that followed five years of military rule, a rare step in a country where top royals are officially treated as semi-divine and above the political fray.

Those comments -- one of which rebuked former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose allies won the most seats in the election -- mark a shift from the style used by Bhumibol during his seven decades on the throne. Vajiralongkorn also gained ownership of Crown Property Bureau assets valued at more than $9 billion, including prime pieces of Bangkok real estate, through legal changes he approved.

Some of the world’s strictest lese majeste laws hinder critical discussion of the monarchy in Thailand, where lengthy prison sentences have been given out in recent years for sharing news articles or social media posts with content deemed offensive. Politicians on all sides are reluctant to speak about the king, and must comply with any of his decrees.

"The military-backed government is highly responsive to the demands of the king," said Kevin Hewison, an emeritus professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "He’s a military man so he’s big on rules and regulations. He’s using legal mechanisms much more than his father. He seems to be legalistic in his approach to kingship."

Before the election, the king rejected his sister Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya’s move to stand as a prime minister candidate for a party linked to Thaksin. In a royal command, Vajiralongkorn said that “the monarch and the royal family members are above politics.” The party, Thai Raksa Chart, accepted the king’s decision, but was later disbanded by a court for hostility toward the constitutional monarchy.

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