Thais have marked one year since the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej with solemn ceremonies and acts of personal devotion before an elaborate five-day funeral later this month.
Official commemorations of Bhumibol were organised on Friday at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, where he died, and at Government House and the ornate royal palace.
But many ordinary people showed their respects on the streets, at neighbourhood markets and temples, kneeling before orange-robed monks to perform a Buddhist merit-making ritual.
Outside the hospital, mourners clad in black offered alms to a long procession of Buddhist monks and several thousand packed its grounds, joining nurses and doctors in prayers as monks chanted over loudspeakers.
Bhumibol's death at age 88 after a reign of seven decades sparked a national outpouring of grief and a year of mourning that will culminate with his cremation on October 26.
More than 12 million people, or nearly a fifth of Thailand's population, have visited the palace throne hall where the king's body has been kept for the past year.
The reverence Bhumibol inspired was in part the result of decades of work by palace officials to rebuild the prestige of the monarchy, which lost much of its influence after a 1932 coup ended centuries of absolute rule by Thai kings.
That effort built an aura of divinity around Bhumibol, who was protected from criticism by draconian lese majeste laws, but the king was also genuinely adored for his charitable work, personal modesty and as a symbol of stability in a nation frequently rocked by political turmoil.
His son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarankun, knelt before a portrait of the late king and Queen Sirikit at Dusit Palace and is expected to preside over merit-making ceremonies on Friday and Saturday.
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