On 26 February 2026, Most Venerable Phrasophonkhunathan, ecclesiastical chief of Narathiwat province, presided over the 182nd necessity offering ceremony to 323 southern temples for its 22nd year in order to dedicate merit to the deceased due to the insurgency in the four southern provinces of Thailand (Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and 4 districts of Songkhla). In this event, there was the 145th presentation ceremony of 98 scholarships to teachers in the south for its 19th year. District Chief of Tak Bai Kritsada Suksabai was laypeople chairman at Wat Boonnaram, Tak Bai district, Narathiwat province. This event was also attended online by laypeople within and outside Thailand via www.zoom.com & www.gbnus.com.
The morning ceremony was the almsgiving to monastic community so as to dedicate merit to the deceased in the four southern provinces, followed by the scholarship presentation to teachers in the south and the 182nd necessity offering ceremony to 323 southern temples. Later, Venerable Phraphavanadhamvithes, assistant abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya delivered a speech and a video on the activities for the world’s morality revival was presented to all attendees before the dry food offering to the police and soldiers.
“It is well known that the civil unrest has lasted for more than 22 years in the four southern provinces; consequently, the monks and novices in these areas are facing difficult living situations and can’t go out for almsgiving. They have to rely mainly on the food offering of the laypeople and the laypeople enter the temple to seek relief from distress through making merit and listening to the sermon. The monastic community and laypeople have to rely on each other. Today’s necessity offering will encourage the monastic community to continuously perform duty in their area according to the monastic discipline,” Most Venerable Phrasophonkhunathan gave a speech.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Dhammakaya Foundation and laypeople across the world organized the first necessity offering ceremony to 323 southern temples on 7 June 2005 at Mujarintawapi Vihara Temple in Pattani province. Their objective is to encourage the monastic communities and Buddhists in the south to protect Buddhism in their area during the insurgency. This necessity offering marks its 182nd time of 22nd consecutive year that this event has been held. For the scholarship presentation, more than 41,477 scholarships have been awarded to teachers in the south. Until now, over 6,000 tons of dry food has been distributed to the locals, soldiers, police and teachers in unrest areas of the 4 southern provinces.
