Tears flow during rehearsal of Royal Cremation procession

This article from The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Thailand, describes the reaction to the rehearsal of the Royal Cremation procession of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In addition to the technical details of the procession itself, an interesting point is that many of the observers were 'elderly'. This echoes my earlier post where I observed the same about people who went to pay respects in front of the royal urn in the Grand Palace.

Initially, I thought that this was the case because younger citizens may be occupied by work. However, the rehearsal took place on Saturday where most people don't have to work, weakening this argument. Another consideration is that younger people tend to be more technologically inclined, meaning they may want to stream the rehearsal online or on the television. While data collection is required to verify this hypothesis, this also raises the question of why are fewer young people interested in seeing the procession live?

Towards the end of the article, we hear the thoughts of Bunluen, a 76 year old who had to sneak out of her own home to come because her children 'would not allow [her] to go because of [her] health'. She said that she 'wished to say [her] last farewell to the King' by herself. The article also describes her crying as the royal chariot drove past. Like my earlier response (Royal Respects), this raises the question about what triggers such a cathartic feeling. The other question is what does this aging demographic of people with emotional connections to the monarchy imply about the monarchy going forward?