Religious Rites Held Throughout Thailand To Mark Asalha Puja, Buddhist Lent

BANGKOK, July 10 (TNA)- Several government offices in Thailand’s capital and upcountry on Thursday began performing Buddhist religious rites to mark the two significant religious days --- Asalha Puja Day and the Buddhist Lent Day which fall on Friday and Saturday respectively. At the Government House in Bangkok, Mr. Panadda Diskul, permanent secretary of the Government House, and its officials joined in offering alms to nine monks from Wat Makut. They prayed for blessing and reconciliation among the people in the society which had been sharply divided before the May 22 bloodless coup. A large candle competition is held at a prison in Bangkok’s neighbouring province of Nonthaburi to enable the prisoners to realise the beauty of the Thai culture and for them to love others. Large candles as well as monk robes were later given to nine monks. Also in Nonthaburi, officials of the Department for Development of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine chanted prayers at the provincial temple. People were invited to join as they were told that several diseases could be cured if they chant prayers for 15 minutes daily. The diseases that could be cured include coronary artery disease and cancer. The department is encouraging more than 9,000 health hospitals at a village level and schools in communities to persuade people to chant prayers on routine basis. People in the northern capital of Chiang Mai also offered candles and bulbs to monks, and released marine lives into a river and canals. Students participated in candle light procession and presented robes to monks to use during Buddhist Lent, the three-month annual retreat where monks remain inside their monasteries and on the temple grounds during the monsoon season. Meanwhile, security officials who are devout Buddhists in the deep South presented candles to 97 temples in four districts connecting with the three violence-plagued provinces – Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- and asked for safety of the security personnel operating in the area. Asalha Puja Day celebrates the Lord Buddha’s first sermon in which he set out to his five former associates the doctrine that had come to him following his enlightenment. (TNA)