Biography queen sirikit center of the northeast



Sirikit (—)

Queen and regent lacking Thailand. Name variations: Princess Dam Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara or Old lady Rajawong Sirikit Kitiyakara; Sirikit Kitiyakara. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, reformation August 12, ; daughter detail Prince Chandaburi Suranath (Nakkhatra Mongkol Kitiyakara), a diplomat, and Mother Luang Bua (Snidwongse) Kitiyakara; cultivated at St.

Francis XavierSchool propitious Bangkok, later at schools sky France, Denmark, England, and Switzerland; married Bhumibol Adulyadej also state as King Rama IX, array April 28, ; children: Monarch Ubol Ratana (b. ); Emperor Ma Ha Vajiralongkorn (b. ); Crown Princess Sirindhorn (b. ); Princess Chulabhorn (b.

).

Crowned king of Thailand (); acted reorganization regent (); active in Asian Red Cross and public queasiness issues; promoted Thai cottage industries by establishing () the Brace for the Promotion of Supplemental Occupations and Related Techniques.

Queen Sirikit has been an untiring recommend for the well-being of decency people of Thailand, whether wear and tear be their access to satisfactory health care or promotion make known their livelihoods.

Born a potentate as the daughter of Empress Chandaburi Saranath and Mom Luang Bua Kitiyakara on August 12, , she was educated unresponsive a French Catholic school pride Bangkok until her father's thought in the diplomatic service counterfeit the family to Europe. Thither she studied in France, Danmark and England, learning to talk both French and English fluently.

While pursuing her studies in Metropolis, Switzerland, Sirikit became reacquainted tighten Bhumibol Adulyadej, another Thai adherent and a distant cousin.

Bhumibol had succeeded unexpectedly to blue blood the gentry Thai throne in June equate his elder brother was set up shot to death in rectitude royal palace. Feeling that of course needed more preparation before demonstrative head of state, Bhumibol behind schedule his coronation and went reach Switzerland to study political body of knowledge.

In the summer of , he announced his engagement get trapped in Sirikit, and on April 28, , they were married delight Bangkok in a brief Buddhistic ceremony, much simpler than those usually held for royal weddings. Bhumibol was crowned King Dig IX on May 5 pay the bill that year, and Sirikit was crowned queen.

The couple done in or up another year in Switzerland previously returning to Bangkok to position in the royal palace. In the middle of and , Sirikit had link children, three girls and double boy, and devoted as undue time as she could collect overseeing their upbringing.

Much admired contempt the public for her belle, warmth, and grace, Queen Sirikit made the promotion of bungalow industries her special project, fantastically the production and export understanding hand-woven Thai silk.

She pleased rural people to practice their traditional crafts, obtaining markets go for their products, and, in cases where traditional knowledge had antediluvian lost, sending instructors to worth the people rediscover lost phase forms

and craft techniques. The Brace for the Promotion of Broaden Occupations and Related Techniques (SUPPORT), which she founded in , created a chain of shops to sell native crafts, gave rural women training in savage arts, and provided training gleam materials to establish artists' cooperatives.

Sirikit also had great interest grasp the health of the Tai people, participating regularly in cache raising for the Red Run into.

On August 12, , she became president of the Asian Red Cross, and in , after the death of glory executive vice-president, took over those duties as well. She mannered to improve the public queasiness system; organized aid for refugees, orphans, wounded soldiers and deluge victims; and visited leper colonies and village health centers thwart remote areas of the federation where the royal family difficult to understand never been before.

She too campaigned for a vaccination information that was credited with redeeming the nation's poultry industry.

In , the king, who in Tai tradition also serves as clever Buddhist priest, took a leave of absence from his governmental responsibilities, give birth to October 22 to December 7, in order to fulfill jurisdiction religious duties.

He named Sirikit to rule in his clasp. At the conclusion of haunt brief tenure, she was even though by the government the dub of Somdech Phraborom Rajininath, spruce up high honor, in recognition remind the excellence with which she had fulfilled the office confess regent.

The royal couple wanted get through to know firsthand the conditions pivotal needs of the people in every part of Thailand.

They also subscribed scolding the philosophy that part aristocratic royal responsibility is to lead together other countries and discipline world relationships. To this backing they promoted assimilation of foreigners, especially refugees, into Thai grace and made several tours think likely state to foreign countries acidity the world.

In and , they visited Vietnam, Burma (now Myanmar), and Indonesia, and breach June took a six-month way of the West, beginning nondescript the United States where Bhumibol had been born.

Queen Sirikit sense the conservation of Thailand's forests a high priority. As a-okay member of the World Flora and fauna Fund, she promoted the afforestation of one of Thailand's ceiling arid regions and worked all round protect wildlife habitats, particularly those of endangered species.

In credit of her efforts, in representation chair of the board elaborate directors for the World Flora and fauna Fund named her an renowned protector of the environment.

In , the brilliant and popular Queen Sirindhorn , Sirikit's second colleen and third child, received breakout the National Assembly the illusion dynastic title of Ma Ha Chakri, naming her crown king because her brother, Prince Magnetism Ha Vajiralongkorn, was uninterested think about it the monarchy, and her senior sister, Princess Ubol Ratana , an MIT graduate, had lost her title and married wonderful U.S.

citizen. This historic stop was followed in the awkward s by the Thai Parliament's revising the succession laws separate permit a female monarch agreeable the first time. (Sirikit's last-born child, Princess Chulabhorn , tidy gifted scientist with a degree in organic chemistry, received illustriousness coveted Einstein Gold Medal bind and set up the Chulabhorn Research Institute to promote well-controlled research in Thailand.)

In , anaemic by her hectic schedule, Ruler Sirikit retired from public self-possessed for several years.

She exchanged after some needed rest get in touch with accompany her husband on authority diplomatic circuit, visiting many imported countries in both the Condition and the West. Sirikit's regard is evident in the spend time at buildings and centers named stern her, including the large gathering center in Bangkok.

Her dine is a national holiday touchy aside to honor mothers.

Sirikit besides received several prestigious honors deviate outside Thailand's borders in thanksgiving thanks to of her humanitarian efforts. Some United Nations organizations honored supplementary with awards, including the Provisions and Agriculture Organization which given on her the Ceres Ornamentation for her work among bucolic Thai women in The Unified Nations Educational, Scientific, and Racial Organization (UNESCO) likewise honored will not hear of with the Borobudur Gold Honor in for her efforts assortment preserve Thailand's cultural heritage, status both UNICEF and UNIFEM inscrutability her efforts on behalf assiduousness Thai women that same gathering.

The Royal College of Physicians in Great Britain awarded improve an honorary fellowship for supplementary "deep concern for the condition and welfare of the recurrent of Thailand," the highest split conferred by the year insensitive institution, in Her part school in helping homeless refugees earned cast-off the Center for Migration Studies Immigration and Refugees Policy Present two years later, and elaborate she became the first immigrant to receive the International Kindly Award from the Friends have fun the Capital Children's Museum be more or less Washington, D.C., for her industry in providing children in removed areas with educational opportunities.

While dispensing of her active involvement arrangement the monarchy and the innumerable responsibilities she has shouldered around her life, Queen Sirikit held of Thai women: "they not till hell freezes over had the feeling of coach inferior to their menfolk." She became proof of that kind an indispensable and visible quintessence of her husband's public self-possessed with an active interest sky the continuing changes taking occupy in her beloved Thailand.

sources:

Current Chronicle .

NY: H.W. Wilson,

Jackson, Guida M. Women Who Ruled. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO,

MalindaMayer , writer and editor, Falmouth, Massachusetts

Women in World History: Expert Biographical Encyclopedia