Mourning

Mourning is a very private state of mind, but sometimes it becomes a social phenomenon. The streets of Bangkok have seen a continuous outpouring of grief for one full year since their beloved monarch passed away. The whole country has become a black river flowing every day towards the palace to pay its deep respects. Women and men of all social classes, coming from all corners of the country, have converged to the city on the Chao Phraya river to personally bid farewell and remember the times lived under his revered father figure. The whole center of old Bangkok has become a place of mourning, full of people dressed in black from head to toe, deeply sad and thoughtful, personally involved in this social drama as in a family matter. Genuine devotion in this scale can probably not be found anywhere else in the world. No elected leader in any democracy, not to mention European monarchs, could raise such sincere emotion or generate this widespread feeling of deep personal loss. The rest of the world watches respectfully. The land of smiles is sad.