#Thailand - Long list of foreign guests to attend the Royal Cremation ceremony

The latest list of foreign dignitaries to attend the Royal Cremation of HM the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej scheduled for Thursday. 

1. Lesotho : Their Majesties King Letsie III and Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso
2. Bhutan : Their Majesties King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Ashi Jetsun Pema Wangchuck)
3. Tonga : Their Majesties King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u
4. Myanmar : President U Htin Kyaw and his wife; Su Su Lwin
5. Laos : President Bounnhang Vorachith and wife Khammueng Vorachith

6. Singapore : President Madam Halimah Yacob and husband Mohamed Abdullah Alhabsee
7. Sweden : HM Queen Silvia
8. Netherlands : Maxima
9. Belgium : HM Queen Mathilde
10. Spain : HM Queen Sofia
11. Australia : General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove
12. Canada : The Right Honourable Madame Julie Payette
13. Indonesia : Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri
14. Swiss Confederation : Former Joseph Deiss
15. Germany : Former president Christian Wulff
16. Bahrain : Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
17. Denmark : HRH Crown Prince Frederik
18. Norway : HRH Crown Prince Haakon Magnus
19. Luxembourg : Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume Jean Joseph Marie
20. Malaysia : HRH the Sultan of Perak Darul Ridzuan Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah Al-Maghfur-Lah and HRH Tuanku Zara Salim the Raja Permaisuri of Perak Darul Ridzuan
21. United Kingdom : HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York
22. Japan : HIH Prince Akishino and HIH Princess Akishino
23. Qatar : HH Prince Thani bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
24. Liechtenstein : HRH Princess Margaretha
25. Vietnam : Deputy President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh
26. Cambodia : Prime Minister Hun Sen
27. Swaziland : Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini
28. New Zealand : Former prime minister James Bolger
29. France : Former prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and wife Brigitte Ayrault
30. China : Vice prime minister H.E. Mr. Zhang Gaoli
31. Turkey : Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Işik
32. Korea : Vice National Assembly Speaker Park Joosun
33. Russia : Deputy chairperson of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Olga Epifanova
34. Brunei : PM’s Office Minister, Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng
35. United States of America : Secretary of Defence James Mattis
36. Philippines : Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano and wife Maria Laarni Cayetano
37. Sri Lanka : Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana and wife Stella Marapana
38. Nepal : Defence Minister Bhimsen Das Pradhan and wife Bidya Banmali Pradhan
39: Pakistan : Power Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari
40. Bangladesh : Foreign Minister Mohammed Sahriar Alam
41. India : Deputy Foreign Minister M J Akbar
42. The Holy See : Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro

Source - TheNation

 

The royal crematorium of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is almost complete.

Designed for a divinity

The architect of the Royal Crematorium talks about his inspirations for the elaborate structure

HIS MAGNIFICENT Phra Merumas, the royal crematorium, is almost complete but artist Kokiart Thongphud is not counting the days until it comes into use. 

“While I know that this is the most magnificent and majestic structure I have ever designed, I am neither glad nor proud to see it become a reality. My heart is crying and I don’t want October 26 to come – the day when I will send my beloved King back to heaven,” says the 49-year-old artist with the Fine Arts Department, who started work on designing the crematorium only hours after His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on October 13 last year.

 

Like all Thais, Kokiart did not let his grief and suffering keep him from his work. The elaborate royal crematorium for King Bhumibol is the tallest of any such structures since the reign of King Rama V.

“My respected master Prince Naris – Prince Narisara Nuvadtivongs, considered the great master of Siamese art – once said that the highest and widest structure of Phra Merumas signified the greatest dignity. My first design had the structure standing 80 metres high on a 120-metre-wide base, but it was too large for Sanam Luang as it is today. I eventually had to settle on a practical structure 55.18 metres high and 60 metres wide,” says Kokiart, who was the right-hand man of the celebrated late architect Arwut Ngernchuklin, designer of the royal crematoria for HRH the Princess Mother, HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana and Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda in 1996, 2008 and 2012 respectively.

 Kokiart prepared five draft designs of the royal crematorium in the busabok style in line with the structures sketched by the old masters since the reign of King Rama V. These showed elaborate pavilions with ornately decorated tiered roofs topped by one, five and nine spires respectively. The five drafts along with other artists’ sketches were presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the president of the Royal Funeral Committee, and the Princess selected his design featuring nine pavilions, each standing independently of the others.

 The royal crematorium comprises nine busabok-style pavilions sitting on a three-tiered, square shaped base with a staircase on each of the four sides. On the topmost tier is the seven-tiered, spire-roofed principle pavilion, which will house the royal urn, while each of the four corners on the second tier have five-tiered, roofed pavilions called sang, which will be used by monks to chant scriptures during the ceremony. The remaining four pavilions are located at each of the four corners on the first tier. 

Kokiart also marks the centre of the royal crematorium from where two axes intersect – one from the spire of the Phra Si Ratana Chedi pagoda in the adjacent Wat Phra Kaew and the other from the middle of the phra ubosot or ordination hall in the nearby Wat Maha That.

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#Thailand - 7.5m people pay respects to late King

People from all walks of life and from all over the country have visited Bangkok to pay their respects before the Royal Urn of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej inside the Grand Palace’s Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall.

The Bureau of Royal Household reported on Friday that 7,544,644 people had paid their respects before the Royal Urn in the past 219 days. During the same period, the public also donated more than Bt592 million towards merit-making for the late King.

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Source - TheNation

 

Thailand - 3 million funeral wood flowers for King’s cremation

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Three million funeral wood flowers will be given to public mourners before the late HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s royal cremation, according to Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang.

The artificial flowers will be made into 36 patterns – such as roses, orchids, water lilies, cape jasmines, daffodils, zinnias and champaks – from focal natural materials like dried banana leaves and trunks and dried water hyacinths, Aswin said on Monday.

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They will be made and provided at 101 booths across Bangkok.

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Flower makers will include people from BMA schools, vocational schools and companies. 

Their models will also be given to those wishing to craft the flowers themselves.

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According to Thai tradition, wood flowers are placed in front of a deceased person’s coffin or urn as a last tribute before cremation.

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The BMA’s Social Development Department is receiving raw material donations for the flower-making process.

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Source - TheNation

Cambodia - The Monkey God’s last dance: Bidding a Lakhon Khol master farewell

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After the troupe of young boys had performed the Monkey Dance, and a group of Apsara dancers had left the stage, 67-year-old Royal University of Fine Arts professor Proeung Chhieng stepped up, shoulders hunched, to the microphone to address the several hundred mourners. Behind him, at the top of an elaborate funeral pyre set up in a field at the Secondary School of Fine Arts, was the body of his friend and teacher, Yit Sarin, who passed away at 91 on Saturday night. 

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“Today, at his funeral, I am so sad to lose someone so valuable for the country,” Chhieng told Post Weekend at the funeral on Monday. “However, I am also happy to see his students, for whom he devoted great effort in teaching, at his funeral … We are preparing to carry on his legacy and complete his unfinished mission.”

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Born on July 1, 1925, Sarin is renowned for being the first male dancer in Cambodia’s Royal Ballet and was the last surviving custodian of the knowledge, history and practice of the Khmer masked theatre dance known as Lakhon Khol. With his death, many fear an irreplaceable loss to the Kingdom’s cultural heritage. 

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Practitioners of the masked dance, relatives, and Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phuong Sakonga paid their respects at the funeral service, but the overwhelming majority of those present were students at the Secondary School of Fine Arts, where Yit Sarin’s cremation was held. 

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All recalled Yit Sarin as a uniquely powerful teacher, dedicated to preserving and passing on the knowledge of Lakhon Khol.

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“To be honest, we could not afford such a big funeral, but his students, who adore him, have put together the money to make it happen,” his 62-year-old daughter Kao Amry told Post Weekend. 

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“He was both a family man and a great artist,” said cousin Sith Sothea, 50.

Sothea’s orphaned father was raised by Yit Sarin during the post independence Sangkum period, she said, and after the Pol Pot regime, when Sothea and her brother were orphaned, Yit Sarin took them in as well. “He adored his family and relatives, as much as he adored Lakhon Khol.”

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His only surviving son, 19-year-old Sarin Vathanak, recalled the utter devotion his father had for passing on the knowledge of the art form, even at the end of his life.
“My father had taught Lakhon Khol all his life until he was bedridden in 2015,” he said, weak from emotion. “I am grief-stricken to lose my father, but also proud of him.”
Grandpa White
Born “Keo Sar”, Sarin changed his name during the Khmer Rouge regime, although he later became known simply as Lok Ta Sar (Grandpa White) – a nod to his signature role: the Hindu deity Hanuman, who is represented as a white monkey.
The dramatic pre-Angkorian dance form involves masked characters performing episodes of the Reamker – the Khmer version of the Hindu epic Ramayana – while a director, speaking and singing in three distinct “voices”, narrates the play over music.
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According to Professor Aok Bunthoeun, vice dean of the Faculty of Choreographic Arts at the Royal University of Fine Arts, the theatre was practiced in palaces and pagodas for centuries, but only by one gender. 

“In the Royal Palace, it was said that officials would be jealous if male dancers were next to female dancers, so the male dancers of Lakhon Khol were relegated to pagodas,” he said. 
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 But this all changed in 1940 when Queen Sisowath Kossamak called Yit Sarin and three other boys from the Wat Svay Andet pagoda in Kandal to perform the Monkey Dance for three days at the Royal Palace. Delighted with the performance, she put the four under the tutelage of Royal Ballet master Mam Yan. However, all but Yit Sarin grew homesick and left the palace. 
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From that “revolutionary” moment, Bunthoeun said, the Royal Ballet became the first Lakhon Khol troupe with both men and women on stage, although the roles of men would be limited to monkey characters and “the hermit” in the Reamker. 
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Beyond establishing himself as a master of the art, teaching subsequent generations of dancers, Yit Sarin served as King Norodom Sihanouk’s personal assistant (or his Moha Tlik) during his quest for independence, for which he received several Royal Honours.

 

Thailand - Funeral of King Bhumibol 'planned for late October'

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 The funeral of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej will be in late October, according to the government spokesman. 

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A government committee overseeing the funeral arrangements had agreed at a meeting on March 1 that that the rites be held by late October, government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Wednesday.
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He said reports that the funeral would be held in late December were incorrect.
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It was reported that the Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn suggested the rites be scheduled for Dec 25-29 this year.
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The reports quoted the Prime Minister’s Office as saying the princess gave the advice during a meeting of the government panel overseeing the funeral of the late King.

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.Source; BangkokPost

Huge farewell for ‘Por’ in Buri Ram

THOUSANDS of fans bid a final farewell to heartthrob Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong during his royally-sponsored cremation at Klang Temple in Buri Ram yesterday.

The granting of royal embers from His Majesty the King is considered a great honour for the late actor and his family.

The procession transporting Por's body |from a temple pavilion to the crematorium |started at about 1.40pm with his family, including his wife Vanda Chinglek and their little daughter.

Vanda held on to his picture tightly during the march and was seen shedding tears from time to time.

Por came down with the severe form of dengue haemorrhagic fever late last year. After battling the disease for about 70 days in Bangkok, he succumbed last Monday at the age of 35.

 His loss broke the hearts of his family as well as many Thais. He is fondly remembered not only for his acting talent, but also his good heart.

Famous actors, actresses, TV producers and other celebrities from entertainment circles were in attendance, including Ann Thongprasom, Matira Tantiprasut, Jariya and Johnny Anfone, Naowarat Yuktanan and Kobsuk Charuchinda.

Because the turnout was huge, the queue to lay funeral wreaths stretched several kilometres.

Foreign admirers came from as close as neighbouring Laos and as far as Germany to send off their favorite actor.

Por's close friends wore soccer shirts emblazoned with his nickname as they turned up to help with the proceedings.

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Source: The Nation

Thailand - Funeral procession of Supreme Patriarch begins

The elaborate 1,383-strong 456-metre-long funeral procession of the late Supreme Patriarch started at 8:01 am Wednesday.

 The procession that moved from Wat Bovoranives and will move along Wat Phra Sumen Road, Phanfa Lilat Bridge, Lan Luang Road, and Krung Kasem Canal towards Wat Thepsirintharawas where the grand cremation will take place at 5.30pm.A large number of Buddhists joined the procession, paying the last respect to the revered monk. 

 

 

Source: The Nation