Khun Yay's Final Tribute : หน้า 56/232

Khun Yay departed from this world on Sunday the 10th of September 2000. With the utmost gratitude and respect that Luang Phaw Dhammajayo had for Khun Yay, he requested all the monks, novice monks, and upasaka and upasika of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, along with all devotees of Khun Yay worldwide, to join in body and mind in the most perfect and majestic crystal lighting ceremony and cremation held on 3rd February 2002. This was a gesture intended to demonstrate his immense gratitude and to declare Khun Yay’s significance for the whole world to appreciate. The crystal lighting ceremony was the biggest and grandest event ever held at Wat Phra Dhammakaya with an estimated 500,000 participants. It was also the first time that over 100,000 monks and senior monks, from over 30,000 temples throughout Thailand, had ever congregated together, when they attended the cremation ceremony for Khun Yay. As a way to demonstrate their kindness, monks from many other countries travelled across many miles in order to participate in the ceremony. The congregation of this great a number of monks had never happened before in the history of Thailand.