Thailand mourns Queen Sirikit, whose royal story was also a Swiss one

The former Queen of Thailand's connection with Switzerland Keystone-SDA

Former Thai Queen Sirikit died on Friday at the age of 93. She and her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away in 2016, had a special relationship with Switzerland.

The couple loved spending a lot of time in Switzerland and were fascinated by the European jet set. Their relationship was one of the greatest love stories of the international aristocracy of the last century. Yet in the beginning, when she was 15 and he was 19, it didn’t seem that way at all. “It was hate at first sight,” Sirikit recalled many years later, referring to their first meeting in Paris in 1947.

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Sirikit Kitiyakara was educated mainly in Europe and met her future husband while studying in Switzerland. In October 1948 Bhumibol had a car accident on the banks of Lake Geneva, in which he lost an eye. Sirikit visited him regularly in hospital.

First child born in Lausanne

The two were married on April 28, 1950 in a grand ceremony in the Thai capital Bangkok, followed a week later by the official coronation. After the coronation, King Bhumibol continued his studies in political science and law in Lausanne. On April 5, 1951, their eldest daughter, Ubol Ratana, was born in the Vaud capital. Subsequently, the family returned to Thailand.

Born in the United States, Bhumibol spent about 18 years of his life in Lausanne. After his father died in 1933, he moved with his mother and two brothers to the banks of Lake Geneva at the age of five. In Lausanne, he attended school, high school and university.

As a young prince, Bhumibol discovered his love for photography, music and especially jazz in Switzerland; he composed and played the saxophone. Besides skiing, another great passion of his was fast cars. To thank the city, the monarch gave it a magnificent pavilion.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/ds

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