On July 30, 1997, Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, passed away at the Valley of Saint-Claude Military Hospital in Paris, France, at the age of 84. It marked the complete end of the Vietnamese imperial system, and an ancient Vietnam was gone. Bao Da was unable to return to Vietnam and died in a foreign country. On July 31, 1997, Frenchwoman Monique Beaudot, the widow of Bao Dai, and her wife, the last crown prince Nguyen Phuc Bao Long, held a grand funeral for Bao Dai. The entire funeral was held in accordance with French etiquette. Pictured is Monique Bodo, the widow of Baoda.
The entire funeral was held in accordance with the Catholic ceremony, because Bao Dai converted to Catholicism in 1988. The entire ceremony did not seem to be a funeral for the Vietnamese emperor. Compared with the grand scene when his father died, Bao Dai's funeral could be said to be very simple. The picture shows Baoda’s funeral.
Bao Dai's widow, Monique Bodo, restricted ordinary Vietnamese from attending Bao Dai's funeral, and only allowed some relatives of Bao Dai's children who had close contacts with Bao Dai during his lifetime to attend the funeral. Even Bao Da’s surviving concubine Pei Mengdie (who married Emperor Bao Da in 1945 and had 2 sons and 1 daughter) was not able to attend the funeral. Among Bao Da’s 12 children, only Bao Da and the Empress The children born to Nan Fang attended the funeral. The picture shows the children of Bao Dai sitting in the first group at the funeral. On the left is Nguyen Phuc Bao Long (the last crown prince), and on the right is the prince Nguyen Phuc Bao Thang.
The picture shows Prince Nguyen Phuc Bao Sheng bidding farewell to Bao Dai at the funeral on behalf of his deceased mother, Queen Nam Fong. Queen Nam Fong died as early as 1963, and Bao Dai did not attend the funeral of Queen Nam Fong.
Bao Dai's funeral did not have the grand farewell ceremony as the funerals of previous Vietnamese emperors, and no ministers wrote epitaphs to praise his virtues. Only a few elders and children of the Nguyen Dynasty attended the event.
Although the whole ceremony was held by Monique Bodo, Bao Dai’s widow, according to the French life, on the day when Bao Dai was going to be buried, Bao Dai’s sons and daughters still attended in mourning clothes and mourning robes according to the Vietnamese tradition, expressing their respect for their Vietnamese father. The picture shows Bao Dai’s children wearing mourning clothes on the day of Bao Dai’s burial. From right to left are Crown Prince Bao Long, Prince Nguyen Phuc Bao Thang, Princess Nguyen Phuc Phuong Mui, Princess Nguyen Phuc Phuong Lien and Princess Nguyen Phuc Phuong Rong.
At that time, under the witness of Bao Dai's widow Monique Bodo, Bao Dai was finally buried in the Passy Cemetery in the 16th District of Paris, France. This marked the true end of an era in Vietnam, and Vietnam never had an emperor. The picture shows the burial site of Baoda.
After Bao Da was buried, he was not considered to have written the temple name, posthumous title, or mausoleum name. There were even no Chinese characters on his tombstone, but Vietnamese Emperor Bao Da and his birth and death years were written in Vietnamese Roman characters. It’s just that the top golden chime from the Ruan Dynasty has four Chinese characters ("Edict of Bao Da"). The picture shows Baoda’s tombstone.
