Chonburi Gov. Khomsan
Ekachai lights candles and incense to mark 100 days since the passing of
the Supreme Patriarch.
Chonburi marked 100 days since the death of
Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch with a merit-making ceremony in Huay Yai.
Gov. Khomsan Ekachai presided over the Feb. 5 commemoration at
Yansangwararam Temple where the Chonburi Red Cross planned the
alms-giving service.
Chonburi civil servants, military, police, local administrators, Red
Cross Association workers and private citizens attended the ceremony,
which saw officials light candles and joss stick to worship the three
jewels.
Then the Banglamung head priest gave a dharma sermon followed by 10
monks chanting prayers before the governor offered them robes and
donations. He then performed a water-pouring rite to dedicate merit to
the late Supreme Patriarch.
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 just days after his 100th
birthday. He’d been living there since 2002 and had turned over
administration of his duties in 2004.
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)
