From Lausanne to Bangkok: the life of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit

Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit had close ties to Switzerland. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT

Queen Sirikit, widow of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and mother of the current Thai monarch, Rama X, passed away on October 24, aged 93. Her ties to Switzerland ran deep.         

For over six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch, King Bhumibol, who died in 2016. They got engaged in the Swiss city of Lausanne, Queen Sirikit attended a private school in the Vaud capital, and she gave birth in a Lausanne clinic. And the royal couple settled in the Lavaux region on Lake Geneva from 1960 to 1961, from where they travelled extensively across Europe.

Queen Sirikit’s portrait, surrounded by flowers and candles, is currently displayed everywhere throughout Thailand, which began a year-long national mourning period on October 25. She reigned for seven decades over 65 million Thai citizens – a record for longevity.

Hospitalised in Bangkok following a stroke, Sirikit passed away “peacefully” in a Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn Hospital, named after the couple’s common ancestor, on October 24, according to the Thai Royal Household Bureau. She had “suffered several illnesses” while in hospital since 2019, including a recent blood infection.

Paris meeting

Sirikit was just 16 when the future king – who had grown up in Lausanne from the age of five – met her in Paris in 1948. She was one of two daughters. Her father was Prince Chandaburi Suranath Kitiyakara, the Siamese ambassador to France.

Sirikit and Bhumibol were cousins, both descendants of King Rama V, who died in 1910.

Sirikit studied classical music and French. Bhumibol encouraged her to complete her studies at a private school in Lausanne, before they got engaged in the summer of 1949 in Pully, where the future monarch’s mother, sister and brother lived.

The wedding took place in Bangkok on April 28, 1950. Sirikit became queen on May 5, 1950, with the coronation of Bhumibol, who was to be known as Rama IX.

In 1961 L’Illustré magazine featured the couple on its front cover with the headline, “Farewell, Switzerland”. L’Illustré

Later, the photogenic queen would feature on the covers of fashion magazines. She became the muse of fashion designer Pierre Balmain. And she was also the favourite model of her husband when he took up painting and photography.

Returning to Switzerland in 1950

Three months after their wedding and coronation, Bhumibol returned to Lausanne to complete his law studies. The young couple moved into the Villa Vadhana in Pully, a house named after the king’s grandmother, the widow of Rama VII, who was then living in Bangkok, where her husband had died in 1935. The villa has since been demolished.

After completing his studies, King Bhumibol returned to Bangkok by night train and ship in November 1951. The magazine L’Illustré featured the couple on their front cover with the headline, “Farewell, Switzerland”.

Before leaving for Bangkok, Queen Sirikit gave birth in Lausanne to Princess Ubol Ratana, who was born at the Montchoisi clinic on April 5, 1951.

She went on to have three more children, all born in Bangkok: Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn – now King Rama X – Princess Sirindhorn and Princess Chulabhorn. 

The King and Queen of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej and Sirikit Kitiyakara, with their daughter Ubol Ratana, who was born on April 5, 1951, in Lausanne, Switzerland. KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS-ARCHIV/Str

In 1956, regent of the kingdom

Six years after their wedding, King Bhumibol was obliged to complete his monastic duties – like every young Buddhist must do so – in autumn 1956. Barefoot, shaven-headed and wearing an orange robe, he had to beg for food on the streets of the Thai capital and live like other monks in a monastery. During that time, Queen Sirikit then assumed the regency of the kingdom, devoting herself to her new royal duties.

Admired by Thai citizens, 20 years on, the Thai government changed the national date of Mother’s Day to coincide with her birth on August 12. She also held charitable positions, as president of the Thai Red Cross. 

Living among the Lavaux vineyards

On July 15, 1960, the royal family landed in Geneva aboard a Pan Am Boeing 707. With their four children, they moved into Villa Flonzaley, rented in Puidoux in the Lavaux region; their entourage of 50 people stayed in a local hotel. This was not a time for holidays, but for tours of European capitals and meetings with the crowned heads of Europe.

In the UK, they met Queen Elizabeth who hosted a ball in London. This was followed by visits to the kings of Denmark and Norway, and to Belgian King Baudoin – with whom the couple spoke in French, as they did with France’s president, Charles de Gaulle, in Versailles. Then it was the turn of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, General Franco in Madrid and even Pope John XXIII in the Vatican.

At that time Queen Sirikit invited fashion designer Pierre Balmain to her Lavaux home for her ceremonial outfits. He was accompanied by journalists from Paris Match magazine, which devoted its coverage to the queen.

Sirikit was also a fan of expensive jewellery. The Thai royal family, which owns a third of Bangkok’s land, is extremely wealthy. But the couple didn’t own yachts or private planes. They preferred to travel on commercial airlines.

Visit to Switzerland’s Federal Palace

On August 29, 1960, the couple were hosted at the Federal Palace in Bern. Swiss President Max Petitpierre recalled the ties between the “two countries, which were so different yet united in their love of freedom”.

Swiss President Max Petitpierre with the Thai royal couple in front of the Federal Parliament in Bern. KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS-ARCHIV/Str

The Vaud government also hosted them at the Château Saint-Maire, a castle in Lausanne that serves as the seat of the cantonal government. After a visit to the local Comptoir Suisse fair, a Vaud newspaper wrote that Queen Sirikit seemed “particularly interested in household objects and washing machines”.

After Christmas in the Swiss Alps, the royal family flew to Bangkok on January 17, 1961. The couple returned to Switzerland only once, for a visit to the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in October 1964. And until his death in 2017, the king never saw the country of his childhood again. He described the Alpine nation as a place “where we were normal Swiss residents like others and where we led a simple life of ordinary people”.

According to official protocol, Queen Sirikit will be cremated on a sandalwood pyre in Bangkok in October 2026, one year after her death. Members of the government and civil servants will dress in black until her cremation, while her soul rises to heaven. Tourists to Thailand must also show respect and observe a certain degree of restraint for a 90-day period.

Edited by Pauline Turuban; adapted from French by Simon Bradley/ts