The yearlong funeral ceremony of Thailand's former Queen Sirikit started Sunday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok's Grand Palace.
Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide.
Former queen Sirikit, the mother of current King Vajiralongkorn and wife of the nation's longest-reigning monarch, died late Friday at the age of 93.
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