Sangha set to pick new leader
THE SANGHA SUPREME Council will decide who the next Supreme Patriarch will be, but traditionally a new appointment is not made until a royal cremation for the late monk leader has taken place, an informed source revealed yesterday.
His Holiness Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara passed away at the age of 100 on October 24. The source said the Sangha Supreme Council, which is made up of high-ranking monks, would convene tomorrow.
“The appointment of the new Supreme Patriarch will depend on discussions among the senior monks,” the source said. “The National Office of Buddhism knows related details and procedures.”
Once the council had made its choice it would relay the senior monk’s name to the prime minister, who would submit the proposed new Supreme Patriarch for royal endorsement.
Tongthong Chandransu, permanent secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister, also said yesterday that the National Office of Buddhism would prepare for the appointment of the new Supreme Patriarch. But he said he had no details about that.
Meanwhile, the Fine Arts Department has assigned the National Archives of Thailand to compile a chronicle about the Supreme Patriarch and his funeral.
“It will cover his history, his illness, his passing, his funeral and his royal cremation,” the department’s director-general, Anek Sihamat, said yesterday.
