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 lthough
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej assumed his kingship
on June 9, 1946, he was officially proclaimed the ninth
monarch of the Chakri Dynasty in accordance with the
ancient royal tradition on May 5, 1951. On the day of his
coronation, his Majesty invested his royal consort Mom
Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara with the full title and rank
of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand.
Throughout
His Majesty's 50 years on the throne, Her Majesty the
Queen has always stood side by side with His Majesty the
King. She has visited Thai people in all corners of the
country and helped His Majesty in development work
concerning agriculture, water sources and irrigation. Her
Majesty has initiated a project aimed at providing
villagers with training in handicraft-making to increase
their income. She has also been actively involved in
natural resources conservation which will bring a better
quality of life to the Thai people and contribute to the
country's sustainable economic and social development. Our
page is present the story of Her Majesty's two major
achievments, one on the conservation project, called
"Small House in the Vast Forest" in Kamphaeng
Phet Province and the other on the Chitralada Shop,
established by the Foundation for the Promotion of
Supplementary Occupations and Techniques (SUPPORT) under
Her Majesty's royal patronage.
On
the occasion of Her Majesty the Queen's birthday, August
12, Thai People across the country in humbly extending
best wishes to Her Majesty.
Long
live Her Majesty the Queen.
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The
dedication to public service exemplified by 's life is also found in other members of
the Royal Family, who consist of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, , Her Royal Highness , and the King's sister Princess Galyani
Vadhana. Like His Majesty, all these work untiringly for the
benefit of the country, sometimes participating in projects
initiated by the King and sometimes in others of their own; in
doing so all have contributed significantly to the creation of
Thailand's modern monarchy. |
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Queen
Sirikit spends
as much time travelling as her husband, equally
indifferent to discomforts and long hours, and her
interest in the welfare of rural people closely parallels
his. An area in which she has taken a particularly deep
interest in that of finding sources of supplementary
income in the off-season or when crops are destroyed by
droughts or floods. It was to combat such problems that
the Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary
Occupations and Techniques (known as SUPPORT) was
established in 1976 under Her Majesty's royal patronage,
partly through funds supplied by Her Majesty and partly
with public donations. |
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SUPPORT's
primary
objective is to set up women's groups and provide rural
Thai women with equipment, materials, and training in
cottage industries. The latter include some 18
traditional crafts which Her Majesty felt were worthy of
being promoted on both local and world markets, among
them embroidery and weaving in the ,
a kind of ikat silk called
in the ,
doll and rattanware making in the
region, and yan lipao, basketry woven of a strong
indigenous vine, in the .
These are marketed through a chain of in Thailand and through department stores
abroad. Most of the crafts are indigenous to the areas
where the projects have been set up and use readily
available raw materials, thus making it easier for
families to acquire a second source of income for basic
necessities when emergencies arise. |
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Besides
individual projects in various parts of the country,
SUPPORT has established two multi-craft training centers.
One is in the compound of
Villa, where around 200 students attend classes taught by
masters of particular crafts; the other, founded in 1980,
is the Bangsai Arts and Crafts Center, located on near the old capital of
which has an enrollment of around 300. At both students
are given a daily allowance, travelling expenses, and
extra pay for the crafts they produce; after training they
return to their villages to pass on the skills to others.
The
Queen has personally undertaken the promotion of these
crafts through trips abroad to meet potential buyers and
also by using them prominently in her own wardrobe; mudmee,
for example, which was once hardly known outside the
region where it was made, is now regarded as one of the
most fashionable dress materails in Thailand and it was
also featured in a collection by the French designer
Pierre Balmain. The Queen's interest in handicraft
development led to the celebration of the Thailand Arts
and Crafts Year, held from August 12, 1988 to December 31,
1989, which featured a wide variety of exhibitions,
demonstrations, and other events under the auspices of the
Tourism Authority of Thailand. |
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For
her work among rural women, Queen Sirikit was awarded the
prestigious Ceres Medal by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, bringing international
recognition to an achievement already well-known to
countless Thais who have benefitted from it. In 1988, she
was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in Great Britain's 470-year-old
Royal College of Physicians, the highest honor the college
confers, for her "deep concern for the health and
welfare of thepeople of Thailand."
The
Queen's efforts on behalf of the less fortunate members of
society have also extended to the refugees from Indochina
who have come to Thailand in such large numbers since the
late 1970's. Similar handicraft training projects have
been set up in the Kao Larn Red Cross Camp for women with
young children, enablingthem to produce goods and earn
money while awaiting resettlement. Members of the northern
hill tribes have benefitted as well and many are attending
SUPPORT centers, where they are given new ideas to use in
such traditional skills as embroidery and jewelry-making. |
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Sharing
the King's concern over the destruction of the natural
environment, Queen Sirikit is an active member of the World
Wildlife Fund (Thailand) and has worked for years on behalf of
conservation of forest areas as a part of watershed development
and as a means of helping perserve wild animals, especially
those in danger of extinction. To this end, she has actively
lent her support to an afforestation project on the northeast,
Thailand's most arid region, and has worked closely with
concerned people to protect wildlife habitats.
Despite
her deep involvement in these projects, as well as other
responsibilities which include numerous royal ceremonies and
serving as Colonel-in-Chief of the 21st Royal Guards Infantry
Regiment, Her Majesty has also found the time to be an attentive
mother, passing on to her children the same dedication to public
service that has characterized the reign.
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more information, please see the following pages |
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Contents
taken from Kinaree Magazine.
Contents Copyright © by Thai Airways International
Public Co. Ltd
Design Copyright © 2002 by Mahidol University
Last updated : November 1, 2002
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