Sunanda Kumariratana[1] (Thai: สุนันทากุมารีรัตน์, RTGS: Sunantha Kumarirat, Sunandākumārīratana; 10 November 1860 – 31 May 1880) was a queen consort of Siam.
[2] She was a daughter and fiftieth child of Siamese King Mongkut (Rama IV) and Princess Consort Piam.
[3] There is an often repeated myth that the many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen, a capital offense—not even to save her life.
However, this was not the case; the King's diary records that boatmen dived into the water, pulled the queen and her daughter from the entangling curtains, and carried them to another boat, where attendants worked in vain to resuscitate them.
The bodies of the queen and princess were dried with injections of quicksilver and stored in golden urns while precious woods were collected for the construction of a funeral pyre; royal facilities where the king and entourage resided during the cremation ceremonies were also constructed in a location referred to as Pra Mane.