Srinagarindra

Encyclopedia : S : SR : SRI : Srinagarindra

Sangwal or Srinagarindra (Thai: ), was the Princess Mother of Thailand'''. (born 21 October 1900 in Thon Buri – died 18 July 1995 in Bangkok). Her formal name and title were Somdej Phra Srinagarindra Boromarajajonani (Thai: สมเด็จพระศรีนครินทราบรมราชชนนี). In Thailand, the Princess Mother was affectionately called Somdet Ya (the Royal Grand Mother Thai: สมเด็จย่า), and by the various hill tribe people, she was called Mae Fah Luang (Royal Mother from the sky, or also the heavenly Royal Mother Thai:แม่ฟ้าหลวง).

Contents

1 Early life
2 Marriage and family
3 Royal duties
4 Memorial
5 Notes
6 External links

Early life

She was born as a commoner to a goldsmith. Her given name was Sangwal. By the time she became nine years old, both her parents had already died. However before that, she was entered into the service of Princess Valaya Alongkorn, who was a daughter of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Sangwal was first educated at Anongkaram School and later at Satri Widhaya School, a well known girl's school in Bangkok. She studied and graduated in 1916 from the school of nursing at Siriraj Hospital. Through the help of the Royal scholarship, she went to study abroad in the USA. She first went to the Emerson School in Berkeley, California, where she studied English. She continued after that at the North West School in Hartford, Connecticut. There she met and fell in love with Mahidol Adulyadej, Prince of Songkhla, son of King Chulalongkorn.

Marriage and family

In 1920, Prince Mahidol and the Princess returned to Bangkok and married. They had three children:

Galyani Vadhana (born in 1923, in London, England);

Ananda Mahidol (born 1925 in Heidelberg, Germany, became later King, Rama VIII);

Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later became King, Rama IX, and reigns today in Thailand).

The couple again returned to Thailand in 1928, however after only about one year in Thailand, Prince Mahidol died. He was survived by his consort, who was 29 years old, and the three young children.

In 1935 King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) abdicated. The Prince and Princess of Songkhla's eldest son, Prince Ananda Mahidol, then only 10 years old, inherited the throne. After the mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, her second son, Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) became ruler.

Royal duties

Doi Tung royal villa

The Princess Mother was actively involved with numerous charitable activities. Her areas of activity ranged from giving assistance to the Border Patrol Police, visiting disabled soldiers, the needy, congested community dwellers, as well as initiating volunteer doctor units to help the hilltribe people in the north, She formed the Volunteer Doctors Foundation to support the activities of the Volunteer Doctor Units. She gave donations to help build schools in remote areas and invited others to help in the project. She also set up the Princess Mother's Fund to help support various other charities.

In her later years, Srinagarindra was strongly involved with projects to aid the hilltribe people in northern Thailand, especially around Doi Tung, Chiang Rai Province.

In the middle of 1991, she apparently fell in her bedroom. Her health after that never returned to normal. In November 1993, December 1994 and again in June 1995 she had to be admitted to the Siriraj Hospital for treatment. She died on 18 July 1995, reaching the high age of 94.

Memorial

Her enormous cremation ceremony on March 10 1996 was one of the biggest events Thailand ever witnessed in modern times, attended by thousands of people and watched nation-wide on television. Her ashes were afterwards enshrined in the Wat Ratchabophit temple in Bangkok. By all accounts Srinagarindra was highly respected and beloved in Thailand as a person of integrity and moral, and seemed to have had a very good relationship with her son. In remembrance of her, the king in 1993 set up The Princess Mother Memorial Park, which consists of her old house and gardens in Bangkok.

Notes

There is some confusion why the Princess Mother was never titled Queen Mother, considering she was the mother of two kings. Since her husband was never king and only had the title of a prince, she never ascended as a queen-consort. Therefore she was given the title “Princess Mother” by her son.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.