BANGKOK, Thailand – Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul led a merit-making ceremony at Wat Ratchabophit in Bangkok to mark the 76th birthday of Somdet Phra Maha Viravongse, Assistant Abbot of the temple and Secretary to the Supreme Patriarch. The event, including alms-giving to 108 monks, was attended by senior officials, civil servants, and large numbers of Buddhist devotees.
Those in attendance included the Permanent Secretary for Interior, senior advisers to the Prime Minister, and high-ranking officials from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Department of Provincial Administration, and the Community Development Department. Police representatives and officials from the Prime Minister’s Office were also present.
Somdet Phra Maha Wirawong was born in 1950 in Bang Sai district, Ayutthaya province. He was ordained as a novice in 1962 and received full ordination as a monk in 1970 at Wat Ratchabophit. He was given the monastic name “Aggajino,” meaning “one who is victorious on the path of Dhamma.”
In 2019, His Majesty the King granted him the royal ecclesiastical title of Somdet Phra Maha Viravongse, recognizing his decades of religious service and leadership within the Thai Sangha. (NNT)
