Alms offered to Buddhist monks

BANGKOK, March 11 (TNA) - Devout Buddhists early on Sunday offered alms to 12,600 monks in Bangkok to commemorate the 2,600th year anniversary of Enlightenment by Lord Buddha. The alms offering ceremony held at Kaset-Ratchayothin intersection was jointly organised by more than 40 agencies including Office of the Prime Minister, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the National Office of Buddhism. Phra Dhamma Kittiwong, the abbot of Wat Raj Orot, and Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, represented chairpersons for monkhood and layman respectively. Alms were given to monks by people who dressed in white. Sunday’s event marked one of the projects which would offer alms to one million monks to all the 77 provinces in Thailand. The events have begun since 2008 and would complete at the end of this month. So far more than 900,000 monks had received alms held in over 450 rounds. (TNA)