Road closed for Saturday’s Buddhist festivities

PHUKET CITY: Buddhists and Saturday-morning commuters are advised that there will be a large alms-giving ceremony on Wirat Hongyok Road tomorrow from 6am to 8:30.

To accommodate the ceremony, the west end of Wirat-Hongyok Road near Wat Naka will be closed to traffic from 4am to 8:30 am.

Traffic along Chao Fa West Road should not be affected.

The event, jointly organized by the Phuket Meditation Center and the Dhammakaya Foundation, will involve the offering of dry foodstuffs to 500 monks from a number of temples in Phuket.

All Phuket residents and visitors are invited to take part.

The alms-giving ceremony is one of many being organized around the country.

There will be a much larger ceremony involving 10,000 monks from Thailand and Malaysia in Songkhla’s Haad Yai District on August 16.

In Buddhism, alms giving is a sign of respect given by lay Buddhists to Buddhist monks and is perceived as an opportunity for the laypeople to make merit.

The Phuket Meditation Center will also conduct two free meditation classes in English on Sunday, August 16 and Sunday, August 23.

The classes are free of charge and open to people of any religion who wish to learn to meditate.

For a map to the center, click here.

— Thanasorn Chookate