Thais prepare for Buddhist Lent

BANGKOK, July 28 (TNA) - Buddhists throughout Thailand are preparing candles for the upcoming three-month Buddhist Lent, which begins on July 31, including the Buddhist Lent Eve on July 30. In Bangkok, the Rama 9 Temple, for instance, is preparing several religious activities, including alms offerings for monks, Buddhist sermons and candle-lit processions around the chapel, aimed at encouraging the public to join and apply Dharma to their lives. Outside Bangkok, people in the northeastern Ubon Ratchathani Province are decorating candles with gold, worth more than one million baht, to honour Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on the auspicious occasion of the Princess's 60th birthday anniversary this year. The decorated candles will be paraded on July 31. In Nakhon Ratchasima Province, also in the Thai Northeast, Buddhists in Chok Chai District are carving a candle, weighing 13-tonnes, at the Mai Sa Pathum Temple to be used during the Buddhist Lent and to be part of an annual candle procession, with a hope to maintain their community's champion for the most beautiful candle procession for the 11th time. A similar candle-making is reported at the Pho Chai Temple in the northeastern Nong Khai Province bordering Laos and, once completed, the candles will be donated to remote temples on August 15. In the central region, Buddhists in Saraburi Province are preparing to celebrate the Buddhist Lent in a ceremony at the Phra Phutthabat Temple from July 29–31, using a large amount of yellow Globba flowers, approximately at least 200,000. Such the ceremony is globally seen annually only in Thailand at the long-established temple. (TNA)