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Flickr /Robert Larimore Pendleton via Manhai
As Thailand gets ready to celebrate the Cremation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej today, we are flashing back to the last Cremation of a King of Thailand, that of King Bhumibol’s older brother, King Ananda Mahidol, in 1950. King Ananda Mahidol, who has succeded to the throne as a 9-year old, died under very mysterious circumstances in 1946, at the age of 20. The cremation ceremony was long delayed, as Thailand suffered political turmoil and King Bhumibol Adulyadej finished his education in Switzerland, but was celebrated with much aplomb before the equally lavish Coronation of the King weeks later.