“The long journey and severe weather were not obstacles for me,” said Sittichai Chumwangwapee, a teacher from northeastern Thailand. “The king went to many places and through many more difficulties than this. So, compared to what our late king had to go through, this does not even represent one tiny bit of the tiredness His Majesty King Bhumibol experienced during his work.”

A quarter of a million people are expected to crowd the areas surrounding the funerary grounds, while others can gather at 85 replica cremation pavilions set up across the country. On Thursday, every Thai television channel will broadcast the ceremony live.

In a sign of the event’s solemnity, selfies have been discouraged at the cremation complex.

“Even if it is already a year since his passing, I’m still crying,” said Amornrat Werakan, 57, a business owner who had arrived from central Thailand on Wednesday to try to witness the cremation procession. “This is a very significant loss, like losing the most important person in my life.”

Since King Bhumibol’s death, millions of Thais have limited their wardrobes to black and white. With his impending cremation, Thai websites and television stations also stripped color from their content and programming.

King Bhumibol’s portrait, bespectacled and sober, hangs in most public spaces and private homes. Shopping malls have been playing jazz compositions by the monarch, a keen saxophonist.

The last time Thailand sent off a monarch to Mount Meru was in 1950, after the deceased king’s elder brother, Ananda Mahidol, died by gunshot in the palace four years earlier. The country, once known as Siam, had only recently been named Thailand and was still a tropical backwater of rice paddies and canals.