UDON THANI, March 5 — Her Majesty the Queen on Saturday presided over the cremation ceremony of highly revered monk Luangta Maha Bua Yannasampanno who passed away on Jan 30 at the age of 97.

Princess Chulabhorn, a regular patron of the monk, also attend the ceremony as well as her younger daughter, Princess Adityadhornkitikhun.

With hundreds of thousands of people–including cabinet ministers, government officials, and more than 3,000 monks–attending the cremation service at Wat Pa Ban Tad forest temple in Udon Thani, the temple was completely packed even though it had prepared space to accommodate large number of visitors and the parking lot had been expanded to receive thousands of cars.

The royally sponsored cremation ceremony was held at a temporary crematorium which had been set up in front of the temple.

MCOT