Nation turns out to mark special day

Thais and foreigners across the country yesterday flocked to local temples in their neighbourhoods to take part in Buddhist observances to commemorate Visakha Bucha or Vesak Day.

In the southern region, Wat Klong Hae in Hat Yai district was packed with Songkhla locals and Myanmar workers who paid respect to a 17-metre-high replica of Myanmar’s Shwedagon Pagoda.

The construction of the pagoda was funded by donations from both Thai and Myanmar nationals who also attended the wien thien (triple circumambulation) ceremony at the temple to celebrate.

In Trat, deputy provincial governor Prathan Surakitbaworn yesterday chaired the opening ceremony of a Buddhism week at Wat Klong Chak in Klong Yai district.

The coastal district is also situated near Koh Kong, a Cambodian island from which residents also travelled to take part in the ceremony.

In the Northeast, Nakhon Phanom villagers and Lao nationals yesterday took part in a merit-making ceremony at Wat Mahathat, a temple sitting next to the Mekong River on the Thai side.

More than 2,000 Buddhist followers, both Thais and foreigners, also attended a walk and run meditation event at Wat Pa Saeng Arun in the central province of Khon Kaen yesterday.

Also yesterday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha encouraged Buddhists to make merit, observe the five Buddhist moral precepts and attend a wien thien ceremony to mark the day.

PHOTOS BY PATIPAT JANTHONG Despite the rain, villagers light candles to pay respect to a Buddhist monk statue during the Tiew Khuen Doi festival as they climb the steps to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai to commemorate Visaka Bucha Day yesterday.

Chiang Mai locals dressed in white walk past a Buddha statue as they observe the triple clockwise circumambulation.

Highland people clad in traditional attire offer alms to monks.

LEFT A woman clasps three-lit incense sticks, a lotus bud and a garland as she prays during the Tiew Khuen Doi festival. BELOW Chiang Mai residents wear raincoats as they take part in a procession which will deliver a set of monk’s robes to Wat Phra...

A two-year-old boy in Thai traditional apparel holds a candle, lotus bud and three incense sticks as he walks around an ordination hall to commemorate Visakha Bucha Day.