The 161st necessity offering ceremony to 323 temples and the 126th scholarship presentation ceremony in the four southern provinces in 2023

Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Dhammakaya Foundation and their devotees throughout the world organized the 161^st necessity offering ceremony to 323 temples to dedicate merit to the deceased due to the civil unrest in the four southern provinces and the 126^th scholarship presentation ceremony at Boonnaram Temple, Narathiwat.

On 25 March 2023, the monastic communities of Narathiwat together with government and private sectors, local residents, Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Dhammakaya Foundation and their devotees organized the 161^st necessity offering ceremony to 323 temples and dedicated its merit to the deceased due to the civil unrest in the four southern provinces (Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and 4 districts of Songkhla). This year marks the 19^th consecutive year that this event has been held. In this event, there was the 126^th scholarship presentation to teachers in the four southern provinces. 159 scholarships were presented to teachers for the 16^th consecutive year in 2023. This event was organized at Boonnaram Temple, Takbai District, Narathiwat and live broadcasted via Zoom, Facebook Live and Youtube by having a large number of Buddhists in Thailand and from abroad joining this activity.

At 9.00 hrs., the ceremonies of 161^st necessity offering to 323 temples and the 126^th scholarship presentation were presided by Venerable Phradhamrattanaporn, the Abbot of Wat Khian Khet (Royal Temple) and the Chairman of “Wat Pracha Rat Sang Sook” Committee under the Public Assistance Division of Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand as chairman of the monastic community and Mr.Apichart Srisuwan, Sr. Deputy District Chief as chairman of the lay people. In this event, Venerable Phraphavanadhamvites, representative of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and their devotees made a speech and showed a video on the World Morality Revival activities. Venerable Phradhamrattanaporn together with the monastic communities of Klong Luang District, Lum Look Ka District and Wat Phra Dhammakaya also distributed to local residents, police and soldiers, dry food from the food offering ceremony for 191 monks at Jumbo Market in Klong Luang, Pathum Thani

Venerable Phrasophonkunathan, Wat Thongdee Pracharam, the Ecclesiastical Governor of Narathiwat Province gave a speech that monks and lay people had to rely on each other. Although the necessity offering was cancelled for 2 years due to the pandemic of COVID-19, Wat Phra Dhammakaya held this ceremony on Zoom and still offered necessities to the monks of 323 temples at that time. Wat Phra Dhammakaya and their devotees never left the monks in the southern provinces alone. This gave us the encouragement to keep living in the civil unrest area.

The necessity offering to 323 temples in the four southern provinces to dedicate merit to the ones, passing away due to the civil unrest was first organized on 7 June 2005 at Mutjarintawapee Temple in Pattani and the event on 25 March 2023 was the 161^st batch of its 19^th year. The total subsidy value of this event is 305 million baht and the scholarship presentation to teachers in the South has been held for 16 consecutive years with the subsidy value of 80 million baht for 39,461 scholarships. The total financial assistance for both events is 385 million baht.