Paying respect to Princess Galyani Vadhana of Thailand.

At school on Friday just gone the students lined up for the morning assembly as per usual, except today the Thai flag was raised to the top of the flagpole for a brief moment and then lowered to half mast. This was correctly done but I didn’t see the afternoon lowering of the flag as it should have been raised to the top of the flagpole and then lowered. I was happy to see this procedure done correctly this morning.

The reason for this is for the late Princess, Galyani Vadhana. She passed away in January and on the weekend her funeral procession took place. A remembrance of sorts was set up for teachers and students to pay respect to.

The early morning sun was rising behind the trees and the students were being seated, proceedings were getting underway.

Some speeches were made to the late princess; here all students are standing as well as our Brothers while a teacher offers words of remembrance to the late princess.

All teachers, well, everyone in Thailand was encouraged to wear black or white for the official three days of morning. I did for Friday and even Saturday when I ventured out of the house.

All the students were seated and they were asked to sit in a meditation pose for ten minutes, to offer prayers and thoughts to the late princess. I can tell you and I was a little surprised but the students were silent, dead silent. There were a few small students who were quickly told to “be quiet” but apart from that the students were really respectful.

Now most know that Thais are mostly Buddhist, but also our school is a Catholic school. There are a few students who do follow Catholicism. Here we have a guest who is leading the ceremony; I have seen this Brother before but do not know his name or where he actually comes from.

I am not religious, I know a little about most religions from what I have read but that is about that. Here some teachers and students sit with their hands in a prayer like mode.

Here the students are in prayer.

So our school paid respect to the late princess in two ways and I was happy that the students were very respectful and did behave really well.

So that was how we paid respect here in Isaan Thailand to Princess Galyani Vadhana. May she rest in peace.

To see any of the pictures in different sizes, just click on one of them.
Brunty