Prayut leads ceremony to celebrate King's birthday
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha led Cabinet members, officials and general public in an alms offering ceremony on Friday morning at the Royal Plaza in Bangkok to honor His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn on the occasion of his 65th birthday anniversary.
The alms offering at 6.30am to 651 Buddhist monks was also held for the merits of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the blessing for Her Majesty Queen Sirikit.
Prayut and his wife, along with Cabinet members and spouses also went on to sign well wishes for HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn at the office of the Royal Household Bureau in the Grand Palace at 8.30am
At the Royal Plaza, Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda also presided over the 9.10am official launch of a volunteer caravan to perform social services in solving flood, traffic jam and other issues at various areas under the campaign "We Do Good With Our Hearts" established by His Majesty to mark his birthday anniversary. Thousands of people had registered to join this volunteer campaign which also granted each of the participants a souvenir shirt, a cap, a scarf and a notebook.
Elsewhere across the country, various organisations also hosted merit-making activities to mark HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn's birthday anniversary.
Up North, Chiang Mai governor Pawin Chamniprasart led officials and public members in an alms offering at the Chiang Mai International Exhibition and Convention Centre and then joined a ritual of five religious faiths (Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Brahmin/Hinduism and Sikhism) to offer blessings to His Majesty and blood donation activities for HM's merits.
In Sa Kaew, provincial governor Klanarong Pongcharoen led officials and public members to offer dried food to 66 Buddhist monks at the City Hall, where they also signed well-wishes for HM's birthday anniversary and then performed social service activities.
Down South, Yala's Betong district chief Damrong Deesakul led officials and public members in an alms offering to 41 monks, while Phang Nga provincial governor Pakkapong Thawipat led officials and others to grow 3,166 mangrove trees on the 21-rai coastral land that the authority had seized from an oil palm plantation, whose case was finalised, and release 9,866 fish into the sea.