BANGKOK, Thailand — There was gilt and gold, and yet more gold.

For the first time in nearly seven decades, the Kingdom of Thailand crowned a new monarch on Saturday, in a coruscant display weighted with centuries of royal pageantry.

The ceremony to formally crown King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun began at 10:09 in the morning, the precise time designated by a royal augur. The king, 66, arrived at a gilded hall in Bangkok in a golden-hued car, donned a robe and pantaloon woven with shimmering thread and presided from a glittering, octagonal throne.

Shortly after noon, as he was seated under a nine-tiered umbrella, a heavy crown on his head, the king’s transformation was complete.