In 1880, Sunandha Kumariratana, the queen of Thailand, drowned helplessly as her able bodied subjects simply watched from safety. This surely has to be one of the oddest things for a person to do. It’s part of our basic instinct to help someone who is in imminent danger. Yet Sunandha Kumariratana, the queen of Thailand drowned. So why did her subjects sit back and watch her perish, knowing full well what was happening? Simple put, they feared for their own life.
Over time we have become well aware of odd deaths throughout history. Some of them, such as poor Frank Hayes, defy belief. And this happens to be just one of them. For a person to drown when there are able bodied people present who can prevent it is almost unheard of. Even more unheard of is that no one, not a single person wanted to help. I mean, far out, a person is drowning and you just let it happen! Even murderers get a helping hand.
The drowning death of Sunandha Kumariratana, the queen of Thailand
Sunandha Kumariratana was the daughter of King Mongkut, and Princess Consort Piam, which means Princess Mother of Queen Sri Bajarindra. In 1880 when she was on her way to Bang Pa-In Royal Palace the boat which she was travelling in capsized. Despite not being alone, no one came to her aid.
So you could probably understand someones objection to intervening if they weren’t a strong swimmer. After all, there’s little point helping if you are bound to become a victim yourself. Which is kind of what brings us to the scenario here.
OK, so I’m not actually saying that everyone present that day were poor swimmers. There could have been some very fine swimmers present on the day, certainly capable of saving the queen of Thailand from drowning. Heck, there were even boats present, and she still perished. But the would be rescuers still faced certain death from a rescue attempt, because they were forbidden to touch the queen on pain of death. Had anyone touched her, even to save her life, they would have been put to death for their selfless efforts.
The queen of Thailand, Sunandha Kumariratana, drowned at the young age of 19, carrying an unborn child, and succumbing to the depths with her daughter too, with plenty of people present that could have saved her life. The king later erected a memorial to his wife and unborn child.
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