Thais risk provoking chaos by wearing pink

Bangkok: Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej has unleashed a new colour on his country - baby pink.

Since he left hospital on Wednesday wearing a pink shirt and pink jacket, Thais have rushed to the stores to buy pink clothes.

"Pink shirt sales jumped 60 per cent today from yesterday after people saw the King in the colour," a woman selling polo shirts emblazoned with the royal emblem at a Bangkok street market said yesterday. Some caught on sooner than others.

The Matichon newspaper quoted a woman working for Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn as saying astrologers had advised that Mars, represented by pink, would help strengthen King Bhumibol, who spent more than three weeks in hospital.

"Since Her Royal Highness had been aware of the suggestions at the beginning of the year, she started to wear pink every Tuesday," Matichoon quoted Katevalee Napasap as saying.

Association

In Thailand, Mars rules Tuesday, which translates into Thai as day of Mars. Each day is also associated with a colour. Monday, the day King Bhumibol was born, is yellow.

So Bangkok is awash with people wearing yellow on Mondays to show their support for the King, a genuinely revered figure in a country which has had 18 coups since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

Pink has now become the rage in hopes that wearing it will help return the world's longest-reigning monarch, who will be 80 next month, to full health.

But pink may have a sting in its tail.

One fortune teller said Thailand, due to hold a general election in December to return the country to civilian rule after the latest army coup last year, could become chaotic if everybody started wearing pink on the same day.

"We will be under the influence of Mars from next week to February, which will bring conflicts to the country," Kengkaard Jongjaiprah said.