Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, the promoter of projects to enrich rural people and conserve traditional crafts and also the environment, passed away on Friday at the age of 93, confirmed by the Royal Household Bureau.
Queen Mother Sirikit death Reason
Queen Mother Sirikit died at a Bangkok hospital, as reported by the Palace of Thailand, where she had been under long-term observation. Sirikit had fought a blood infection since October 17, 2025, and her condition deteriorated despite receiving intensive treatment. She had in recent years kept a low profile from public view because of poor health, the Associated Press reported. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand’s venerated monarch who reigned for seven decades, passed away in 2016.
Why Queen Sirikit Portrait Graced Homes in Thailand
Although usually eclipsed by her late husband and son, Queen Sirikit commanded great influence and love in Thailand. Her portrait graced homes, offices, and temples throughout the nation, and August 12 was marked as Mother’s Day.
Sirikit’s legacy ran from humanitarian endeavor to conservation of the natural environment. She assisted Cambodian refugees, initiated income-generating activities for rural women, and fought to preserve Thailand’s forests, earning her the moniker “The Green Queen.”
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From Aristocrat to Queen of Thailand
Born Sirikit Kitiyakara in Bangkok on August 12, 1932, she belonged to an aristocratic family, ancestors of the Chakri dynasty.
She was educated during World War II in bomb-scarred Bangkok but subsequently traveled with her diplomat father to France. At 16 years of age, she met the young King Bhumibol in Paris, where she was studying music and language.
After being injured in a car accident, she had gone to Switzerland to tend to him. The king, infatuated, wrote to her in verse and even penned a waltz called “I Dream of You.”
They tied the knot in 1950, just before his coronation, where both took the oath to “reign with righteousness for the benefit and happiness of the Siamese people.”
The couple had four children King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Princess Ubolratana, Princess Sirindhorn, and Princess Chulabhorn.
The royal couple were Thailand’s goodwill ambassadors in the early years, building bridges with world leaders. But by the 1970s, their attention shifted inward to rural poverty, opium addiction, and a communist uprising.
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