A solemn ceremony was held at Pho Minh pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday to receive the Kathina Robe presented by Thailand’s 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the Thai royal family.

The ceremony, which is yearly held after a three-month retreat, was conducted according to the traditional rituals of the Theravada Buddhism at the pagoda, which is located at 2 Thien Ho Duong Street, Ward 1, Go Vap District. The event was attended by the Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam, the pagoda’s chief monk and deputy head of the Managing Committee of HCMC Buddhist Sangha, the Most Venerable Thich Duc Nghiep, Vice Secretary of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) Executive Council's Standing Committee; the Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam, member of the VBS Standing Committee, Deputy Director of the International Buddhist Relations Department, and the head of the organizing board for Kathina Robe offering ceremony; Venerable Thich Tam Duc, deputy head of the Vietnam Buddhist Institute; and many other Buddhist dignitaries. Also present at the ceremony were local government officials and the representatives of the Thai royal family and the Consulates General of the US, India, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia in Vietnam. At the event, Kiattikhun Chartprasert, deputy chief of the permanent office of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, offered the Kathina Robe to the Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam.

A scene of the Kathina Robe Offering ceremony at Pho Minh pagoda in HCMC's Go Vap District on November 2, 2012 (Photo: Giac Ngo Online)

“Through such a traditional Theravada ceremony, Buddhists in Vietnam and in other countries in Southeast Asia have a good opportunity to get closer to each other and learn more about each other’s customs and habits so as to strengthen mutual understandings and to live together in peace and friendship, in accordance with the teaching of Buddha more than 2,000 years ago,” Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam said at the ceremony.

"This is the fourth time that King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the Thai royal family have offered the Kathina Robe to the pagoda," said the representative of the Thai royal family and the Thai Consulate General in HCMC.