Thousands of Mon people along with Thai authorities, soldiers and border patrol police paid their final respects to Her Royal Highness Princess Galayani Vadhana at a ceremony held in Wangka village, near Sangkhlaburi, in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province.
Sangkhlaburi’s District Governor selected Wangka, a primarily ethnic Mon village near the Thai-Burma border, as a ceremonial location for people to pay their last respects to Her Royal Highness the Princess. Other places in Thailand were also selected, and ceremonies across the country coincided with a ceremony held in Bangkok, where Her Royal Highness was cremated at 10pm. Her Royal Highness the Princess, who passed away in January 2008, was the elder sister of His Majesty the King.
Beginning in the afternoon on Saturday, Thai authorities, local administrative officers, soldiers and border patrol police officers began gradually moving into the Mon village to arrange the ceremony and pay their final respect to Her Royal Highness the Princess.
By 3 pm, Mon villagers began gathering near Wangka’s Wat Wan Wiwaikaram, where Mon monks lead a prayer before then monks, authorities and residents began laying offerings of sandalwood flowers in front of a picture of Her Royal Highness the Princess. It took nearly two hours for all present to make their offering.
“I think about 10,000 Mon people attended the ceremony. We prepared nearly 20,000 sandalwood flowers to be used in the ceremony and the majority were offered by Mon people,” said Nai Wichien Sirihong, a community leader from Wangka.
“We Mon people here respect the royal family of Thailand, because we experience that the His Majesty and the Family have no racial discrimination against any nationalities regardless of whether they are minority. The Royal Family allows every race to live in Thailand peacefully, and in a harmony with Thai people,” said Nai Wichien Sirihong, a community leader from Wangka, to explain why thousands of Mon people came to pay their respects.
“There are many royal development projects in Thailand such as health care, education, reforestation, etc.,” added Nai Wichien Sirihong. “I think the main successful project implemented by Her Royal Highness the Princess is the Community Health Worker Project here.”
Her Royal Highness the Princess worked hard to implement the Community Health Worker Project in various poor communities in the border regions and elsewhere in Thailand. By cooperating with the local health care centers or public hospitals, local villagers are trained to understand about primary health care and to take care of each other in the community. This Community Health Worker Project also provide health education and first aid health care method to thousands of community health workers so that they can improve health conditions in the poor rural areas.
Wangka is one of Thailand’s largest and most well established Mon communities in Thailand, and was founded decades ago by the Mon abbot U Uttama. U Uttama, who passed away in October 2006, enjoyed a close relationship with the Royal Family and even had his final hospital visits funded by Queen Sirikit.
