'Jingle all the way' for Yingluck?
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After a fortnight of high-profile activities in which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has inspected guards of honour with the leaders of Thailand's Armed Forces, visited Burmese strongmen, chatted with Aung San Suu Kyi and received the Chinese vice pr
Sources, however, said the Si Sa Ket trip might not be as simple as it sounds.
First off, it is to take place at Wat Sribungburana, a temple she had a fond memory of when it came to her dream-like election campaign. Then, there are rituals planned that will require her total focus, not least because they involve some Pali words that she must memorise and utter.
An itinerary of the event, obtained by The Nation, shows Yingluck will have to do a few more unusual things besides reciting the Pali phrases. These include touching a temple threshold while uttering an excuse for being a woman, in order to enter a holy place and lead a sacred ceremony.
The highlight will be her presiding over the bell-moulding ceremony during which she must make a wish that goes something like, “When the bell chimes, let there be everlasting peace from the world of naga, to the world of humans and to the heaven.”
The sources said they were not certain whether the golden bell-moulding ceremony had something to do with a wish Yingluck made at the temple before the July 3 election. They were not even sure she had made any wish at all, but all remembered that she had some good memories of the Northeastern province during her campaign trail.
After the ceremony, Yingluck is scheduled to visit government and community offices in Si Sa Ket and report on the progress of the distribution of a number of funds allocated to the province.
