Phra Thep Suttajan, head
of the province’s monk committee and abbot of Khao Bangsrai Temple,
begins the water-ablution ceremony for Supreme Patriarch Somdej Phra
Nyanasamvara (inset), who headed Thailand’s order of Buddhist monks for
more than two decades. The Supreme Patriarch died of a blood infection
Oct. 24 at Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, at age 100.
Just days after marking the 100th birthday of
Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch with special events, the entire Kingdom is
mourning his death.
Somdej Phra Nyanasamvara, who headed Thailand’s order of Buddhist monks
for more than two decades, died of a blood infection Oct. 24 at
Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok. He’d been living there since
2002 and had turned over administration of his duties in 2004.
His Majesty the King ordered a 30-day period of mourning for Royal
Household members.
Civil servants and state enterprise employees were asked to wear black
for 15 days, beginning Oct 25, in respect for His Holiness, the longest
living Supreme Patriarch in Thai history, who turned 100 on October 3.
On Oct 25, his body was moved from Chulalongkorn hospital to Wat
Bavornnives for bathing rites.
At provincial halls countrywide, people poured in to pay their final
respects to the Supreme Patriarch in special mourning ceremonies
arranged by provincial administrations.
Locally, the day after his death, Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai and Phra
Thep Suttajan, head of the province’s monk committee and abbot of Khao
Bangsrai Temple attended a water-ablution ceremony for the former
patriarch.
Top police and political officials attended the funeral ceremony before
a large portrait of the Buddhist leader.
Nyanasamvara was born Charoen Gajavatra in Kanchanaburi Oct. 3, 1913. He
was ordained at Wat Devasangharam in 1933. He subsequently moved to Wat
Bovoranives Vihara in Bangkok to further his studies. It was here that
he was ordained in the Dhammayut movement with the then Supreme
Patriarch Somdej Khrom Luang Vajiranyanavangsa as his preceptor. He
passed the exam for level 9 in Buddhist theology in 1941 and in 1972 was
bestowed the title “Somdej Phra Nyanasamvara” by H.M. the King. (CPRD)
Phra Thep Suttajan, head of
the province’s monk committee and abbot of Khao Bangsrai Temple (left)
looks on as mourners take part in the water-ablution ceremony for the
former Supreme Patriarch.
