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.
Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai lights candles and incense to mark 100 days since the passing of the Supreme Patriarch.
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.
