52 Royal Barges and More Than 2,000 People on the River in Bangkok: Thailand's King Celebrates the Queen the World Learned About Three Days Before the Coronation

The Thai monarchy has once again shown that it spares neither time nor people when it comes to ceremony. King Maha Vajiralongkorn, known as Rama X, and Queen Suthida sailed through Bangkok on the Chao Phraya river, in a procession of 52 royal barges and more than 2,000 participants. Thousands of people stood on the banks to watch them pass.

The procession, on Friday 6 November, set off from the Wasukri pier towards the Wat Arun temple, where the royal couple took part in the Kathin ceremony - one of the most important Buddhist ceremonies in the country, when monks are given new robes. The barges were arranged in five columns and three lines, and the whole formation was 1,280 metres long and 90 metres wide. The king and queen sailed on the "Suphannahong", the best-known royal barge, whose gilded prow has the shape of a mythological swan. On another of the main barges were Princess Sirivannavari and Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the king's children.

Behind the few hours of splendour lie months of work. The Royal Navy held ten partial and two full rehearsals so the oarsmen would row in perfect rhythm, and the barges - true floating works of art with mythological figures and gold - had been restored beforehand. This year the ceremony was dedicated to Queen Suthida, who turned 48 in June.

The queen herself has a story that would hardly pass in any European monarchy. The king introduced her as his wife only three days before the coronation in 2019 - an army general and former member of his personal guard, who became his fourth wife. The coronation lasted several days, drew around 200,000 people and cost more than 30 million euros.

In pictures, the procession is a spectacle that shows the monarchy in all its glory. But Thailand is a country where the king is not publicly criticised - the law against insulting the monarchy is among the harshest in the world. When nobody may speak critically about the king, who will ask how much the rehearsals, the restorations and the procession cost - and whether the splendour is a celebration or a message?