Chonburi marked two years since the death of Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch with a merit-making ceremony at Yansangwararam Temple.
Deputy Gov. Phawat Lertmukda presided over the Oct. 29 commemoration at Yansangwararam Temple with Abbot Somdej Prayannasangworn Samdejpra Sangkaraj Sakolmahaparinayok. Attending were area civil servants, military, police, local administrators, Red Cross Association workers and private citizens.
The event also saw the offering of free health checks for students and residents and blood donations.
Somdej Phra Nyanasamvara, who headed Thailand’s order of Buddhist monks for more than two decades, died of a blood infection Oct. 24, 2013 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.
Deputy Gov. Phawat Lertmukda presided over the Oct. 29 commemoration of Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch’s passing at Yansangwararam Temple.
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.
