Shocking Loss: Princess Bajrakitiyabha's Passing Leaves Thailand in Mourning
Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, known as Princess Pa, has died at 47 after spending nearly four years in a coma, the royal palace announced Friday.
The princess — the eldest child of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and a likely heir to the throne — died at a Bangkok hospital on Thursday after she fell ill from a heart condition and lost consciousness in December 2022.
“This loss is not merely bad news announced to the people, but an immeasurable grief in the hearts of the entire nation,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a televised speech.
Bajrakitiyabha collapsed while she was training dogs for a competition in northeastern Thailand. She was airlifted to Bangkok for treatment and remained hospitalized until her death.
The palace said that she had suffered a severe heart arrhythmia resulting from inflammation following a mycoplasma infection.
Bajrakitiyabha’s condition worsened due to an intra-abdominal infection, colitis, low blood pressure, arrhythmias, and blood-clotting disorders, the palace statement said.
In April, doctors feared that Bajrakitiyabha’s condition was deteriorating due to the infection, according to Nation Thailand.
Mourners gathered Friday outside Bangkok’s Grand Palace and Chulalongkorn Hospital, where the princess had been treated, to pay their respects with many holding framed photos and bowing in tribute as news of her death spread across the country.
One of the most prominent members of Thailand’s royal family, Princess Pa was widely seen as a modern face of the monarchy and represented the kingdom on the world stage for years through her humanitarian work.
Born on Dec. 7, 1978, she was the daughter of then-Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and his first wife, Princess Soamsawali.
She studied law at Thailand’s Thammasat University before earning a master’s and doctorate degrees in law at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, NY, from 2002 to 2005.
Bajrakitiyabha served at Thailand’s mission to the United Nations in New York City from 2005 to 2006 before she returned home to work as a public prosecutor.
She later became Thailand’s ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014 and also represented the country in Slovenia and Slovakia.
Princess Pa spent much of her public career advocating for justice reform and the rights of women behind bars.
She founded a charity focused on improving conditions for female inmates, particularly pregnant prisoners, and was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2017.
In 2021, she shifted into a military role, receiving the rank of general and serving as chief of staff in Thailand’s Royal Security Command.
Her death is likely to intensify questions surrounding the future of the Thai monarchy.
Bajrakitiyabha was one of only three children of King Vajiralongkorn with formal royal titles and eligibility to succeed him under the constitution.
The king has not publicly designated an official heir, but Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti is the presumptive successor.
The palace said royal funeral rites will be held in the coming days, while the government is expected to declare a period of national mourning.
The loss comes just eight months after the death of Thailand’s Queen Mother, who died in October at age 93.
With Post wires
