Thailand's enigmatic king to be crowned in first royal coronation in nearly 70 years

BANGKOK - The giant portraits erected in plazas and on street corners across Thailand usually show him as a younger man, clad in a fitted military uniform, his face unlined and hair jet-black.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn is now 66 years old and graying. Yet the official photos have until now represented among the only public signs of the zealously private monarch, who has rarely appeared before his 69 million subjects since assuming the throne when his father died 2 1/2 years ago.

That will change when Vajiralongkorn is officially crowned in three days of elaborate ceremonies beginning on Saturday, the first coronation