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BANGKOK: Starting Friday, Thailand marks three days of official mourning as King Bhumibol Adulyadej prepares to lay his only sister to rest.
King Bhumibol's older sister, Princess Galayani Wattana, died in January from abdominal cancer at age 84. It has taken nearly a year and a budget of US$8.5 million to make the necessary preparations.
At Bangkok's National Museum, Thai artisans work solemnly on towering carriages of gold. Their task is to restore Thailand's fleet of royal chariots, which will bear the princess' funeral urn.
Over two hundred soldiers will pull the main chariot or "racha rot". It weighs nearly 13,000 kilogrammes and is over 130 years old.
It will stop at the Royal Grounds, where a seven-tiered crematorium has been built to house the princess' body.
Over a thousand people have worked for seven months to construct this elaborate crematorium. The cost has been a little over US$6 million.
Although the crematorium is beautiful and significant in Thailand, it will not be a permanent structure. It will be dismantled about a month after the princess's cremation.
A closer look at the structure will reveal bits of coloured glass that glitter like gems and gold foil, which looks like gold leaf from afar.
"The crematorium has been constructed strictly according to past royal tradition. Wood, bamboo, paper and other temporary materials have been used, but we hope people will feel it's very precious, just like real gold or crystal," said the crematorium designer, group captain Arvuth Ngoenchuklin.
The People's Alliance for Democracy, whose supporters are camped out at the Government House, initially refused to take down its barricades for the motorcade to pass.
It has since relented and will allow the procession through a nearby road to the royal cremation grounds of Sanam Luang.
- CNA/yt
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