KHON KAEN: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will on Tuesday join thousands of Buddhist worshippers to bid farewell to Luang Phor Koon Parisutho as he presides over the royally- sponsored cremation of the late revered abbot in Khon Kaen.
At 5.30pm, the premier is scheduled to provide monks with pha bangsukun, the robes used during a funeral, followed by the laying of chan funeral flowers before Luang Phor Koon's coffin.
The cremation will take place at 10.15pm.
"We expect more than 100,000 Buddhists from all over the world to gather at the creation venue," Khon Kaen governor Somsak Changtrakun said, referring to Buddhamonthon in Muang district where an elaborate crematorium has been built especially for the ceremony.
The body of Luang Phor Koon, former abbot of Wat Ban Rai in Nakhon Ratchasima's Dan Khun Thod district, has been kept at Khon Kaen University, where he donated it for medical students to study.
The monk died in 2015 at the age of 91.
Meanwhile, Niyom Wongpongkum, the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts of Khon Kaen University, has brought in 30 craftsmen to carve banana tree trunks to decorate the crematorium that sits atop a statue of the mythical Nok Hassadeelink bird which the faithful believe will fly the monk's soul to heaven.
"Banana tree trunk carving has been part of Thai culture for a long time. In the past, people didn't have a crematorium, so they would put the casket of the deceased on top of a heap of hay and dry firewood then light the fire.
"The problem was that the fire would burn violently and be hard to control, so they used banana trunks, which contain water, to help control the flames as well as serve as decoration at the same time,'' Mr Niyom said.
According to the organisers, on Wednesday, after the cremation ceremony, the Royal Thai Navy will transport the monk's ashes in a boat along the Mekong River in Nong Khai province to scatter them at a spot called phrathat klang nam in the middle of the river.
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