Guinness Book records Thai National Flag as world's largest flag

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND, December 1 (TNA) - Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province has officially launched a ceremony to raise the largest Thai national flag at the Golden Triangle with the presence of officials from the Guinness Book of World Records to note down the flag as the world's ever-largest. Advisor to the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) General Amornrit Padcharoen and Director of the Thai National Flag Museum Pruttipol Prachumpol jointly presided over the ceremony in Baan Doi Sri Kaew of Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen District on November 30. On the occasion, officials of the Guinness Book of World Records also made a new record and announced the Thai national flag, sized 42 metres wide and 63 metres long, as the world's largest flag. A flag raising ceremony was then held in honour of late His Majesty King Rama VI, the initiator of the present Thai national flag that has been used since September 26, 1917. Wednesday's event was attended by over 1,000 participants, comprising of Thais, foreigners, hilltribe people and local administrative officials. Before the flag was raised by three cranes, all the participants joined in a moment of silence for 89 seconds in remembrance of late His Majesty King Bhumibold Adulyadej and joined a mass singing of the national anthem while the world's largest flag was raised to the top of its 189-metre post. Baan Doi Sri Kaew, the site where the world's largest Thai national flag was raised, is an area of 280 acres and after the world's largest flag has been raised to a top spot of the Golden Triangle, the location will later be developed to become a new landmark of Chiang Rai. The northern Thai province, bordering Myanmar and Lao PDR, has already spent over 200 million baht on the development of the location, where a historical centre on the Kingdom of Singhanavati or Yonok will also be constructed and opened to the public by September 26, 2017. (TNA)