October 14, 2016: Bangkok after the saddest night in Thai history

patiphan suwanprateep
Oct 14, 2016
3 min read

On October 13, 2016, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died after 70 years as a King of Thailand. It is the saddest day in Thailand’s history since he had been the heart and soul of all Thais. Although, Thai people has long known about his health condition but it was still heartbreaking for them to hear this news.

On that night a lot of people shared their feeling and thought on their Facebook and other social media. My timeline on Facebook was all about King Bhumibol. I saw pictures of him everywhere as well as black profiles picture which was changed as a commemoration for the king. Just by spending a minute on Facebook, I can feel how much King Bhumibol mean to Thai people.

The next day, October 14, I traveled to Bangkok to see my brother and that gave me a chance to document a life of Thai people one day after the biggest loss in their life.

Skywalk from Paragon to Central World

The first thing I started to notice is that almost everyone is wearing black and white clothes. There are some people who didn’t but that was because they couldn’t prepare for it. The bus stop in Thammasat University and Victory Monument were crowded with people. Some of them were heading to Sanam Luang, a park near Grand Palace, where His Majesty the King's body was transported.

bus stop at victory monument

I come across some of the foreigner tourists, they seem to understand the situation very well and wear black and white clothes. The atmosphere seem a little bit less gloomy than yesterday since everyone still has their responsibility and duty to do. Van driver was angry at the traffic and people was having a fun conversation with their friends as usual. Everything seems to be normal but that’s just how I saw it.

However, one thing I can notice is that older people seem to have this sad look on their face. I don’t know how to explain it but I could feel sadness from their facial expression. It was a mix of sadness and worry.

bus stop at victory monument

Clothes store in both across the street and in the mall have their black and white collection shown and there were so many people were shopping for their clothes as they have to wear black and white as a commemoration for a certain period of time this month.

The clothes shops at Victory Monument

At Siam Paragon, there was a big screen for people who wished to watch the live transportation of the king’s body and the space in front of Paragon’s entrance was full with people. Some walked past and some stop to watch. There was not much noise or voice of people as everyone was paying attention closely to broadcast on the screen. The only source of noise I could hear was from BTS and a water fountain in front of Siam

The screen which was used to live broadcast the transportation of king's body

At Central World, there was a royal bathing rite which was held inside and there were so many people joined in this ritual but if you walk pass that area you will see that everything is still normal. Many stores and restaurants were still operated as usual but the number of customers was significantly decreased. Normally Friday is the day that everyone will spend their time at the mall, do activities and have fun, however, this Friday is different. There were not too many people who went to the mall to have fun. Most of their intention was to attend the royal bathing rite and to pay respect to their beloved king for the last time.