Thais in LA and Massachusetts mourn ‘world’s best monarch’

The King died in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital after 70 years of rule. He had been in poor health for several years but his death shocked Thailand and plunged it into mourning.

In Southern California, home to the largest Thai community in the world outside of Thailand, the sentiment was no different. About 100,000 people of Thai descent came to the United States in three major waves starting in the 1950s and continuing to the present, according to Thai Community Development Centre executive director Chancee Martorell.

About 50,000 reside in Los Angeles County, mainly dispersed between two major clusters within the city of Los Angeles – the east Hollywood community known as Thai Town and the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley, she said.

Stella Boonyawan grieved over the news outside the Buddhist Wat Thai Temple in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley after praying for the late king.

“I just know that I loved my King, he is the King that helped everybody – helping the poor, everything, you know?” Boonyawan, a Thai expatriate, said. “You’ll never find a king like our Thai King, in the whole world. Our King [was] the best.”

King Bhumibol, a king worshipped as a father-figure and who was born in the United States, guided the nation through decades of change and turmoil. 

Nikki Hwonsuwan, a waiter at the Thai Patio on Hollywood Blvd, the main thoroughfare through Thai Town, said she and her family were in mourning.

“My King passed away, so I was ... so depressed,” she said. “I think it was the time that he needed to rest.”

Meanwhile in Cambridge, Massachusetts, many Thais gathered at King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand Square in front of Mt Auburn Hospital, where he was born on December 5, 1927.

Mourners placed bouquets of flowers there to express their grief for the loss of their beloved King.