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Cambodia on Thursday began a three-day elaborate ceremony to transfer the ashes of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk from the Royal Palace to a stupa in the opulent Silver Pagoda.
On the first day, people provided offerings of food to Buddhist monks in front of the Royal Palace in the morning and in the evening, about 3,000 Buddhist monks gathered in front of the Royal Palace to chant prayers.
King Norodom Sihamoni and his mother, former Queen Norodom Monineath, as well as Prime Minister Hun Sen and his cabinet members observed the prayer rite inside the Royal Palace.
Kem Sokha, acting president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which has been boycotting parliament since parliamentary polls in July last year, led the party's lawmakers- elect to participate in the ceremony outside the Royal Palace.
According to the schedule, on the second day, the ashes will be marched along roads near the Royal Palace, and on the third day, they will be interred in a stupa in the Silver Pagoda in the compound of the Royal Palace.
"About 20,000 people will attend the 10-km march of the late king's remains on Friday, which is the second day of the interment ceremony," Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh Municipality Khuong Sreng said, adding that the procession would be live televised on all local TV channels.
The government allowed all civil servants and private company employees to take a day-off on Friday in order to pay homage and to join the parade of moving the late King's remains, according to a directive signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen last month.
Revered King Father Norodom Sihanouk died of illness at the age of 90 in Beijing on October 15, 2012. The late king requested that all of his ashes be interred in the Silver Pagoda alongside the remains of his beloved daughter, Princess Kantha Bopha, who died of leukemia in 1952 at the age of 4.
