Shows still draw huge crowds
A woman pays respect to the seating area at the Royal Thai Navy Convention Hall which Their Majesties the King and Queen and visiting royals used to see the exhibition, ‘His Majesty the King and Sustainable Development’ and the Royal Barge Procession on M
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People are still packing out the exhibitions highlighting His Majesty the King's 60 years on the throne.
Six thousand free tickets for an exhibition of HM the King's Royal Development Projects at the Royal Thai Navy Convention Hall were snapped up in less than an hour yesterday, its opening day. The highly anticipated exhibition shows nine times a day. Each show lasts an hour and audiences are limited to 100 people at a time, because of limited space. Tickets were released yesterday and all were promptly reserved. The exhibition ends on Monday. For those who missed out on the development projects exhibition, Wat Bowonniwet Vihara has an exhibition detailing HM the King's life, paying particular attention to his time of ordination into the monkhood. During His Majesty's time as a monk in 1956, the King lived at Wat Bowonniwet and the present abbot, His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch, was his ordination guardian. Films showing the King during his monkhood are hugely popular at the exhibition. The eight necessities of the Buddhist monk used by His Majesty the King during his time as a monk are also on show. Photos of HM the King when he was a monk were selling well at the temple yesterday, as were the yellow T-shirts and souvenirs being plied at the entrance. That exhibition continues until the end of this month. Meanwhile, people in the South who have been unable to make it to Bangkok for the exhibitions have asked the government to take some of the shows on the road. Prasert Suksri, from Songkhla's Natavi district, said he was travelling to Bangkok to visit the grand exhibition at Muang Thong Thani's Impact Arena. When he told his neighbours about the exhibition, some of the elders expressed their disappointment at not being able to go. "The government should expand the exhibition to rural areas, so that provincial people have a chance to see the beautiful stories of the King, just like the city people did," he said. Sukkarin Srisamarn, a vendor in Narathiwat, said he was so impressed with several of the ceremonies on TV that he deeply regretted not being able to be part of them. "Even just a small-scale exhibition is good enough for us. We might not have another chance in our lifetimes," he said.
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