A SACRED royal ritual will be performed on November 14 to fell four agarwood trees in the Kui Buri National Park for use in the royal cremation of His Majesty King Bhumibol, officials have said.
Officials at Kui Buri park yesterday started preparing ground around the four trees, which met the criteria of fragrant trees for use in the royal cremation.
The four were among 19 dead agarwood trees found inside the park. Their heights range from 11 to 15 metres with widths from 142 to 203 centimetres, in accordance with the criteria for the royal cremation.
The four trees, whose finding orders were 10, 11, 14 and 15, were selected by Chamlong Yingnuek, director of the Royal Household Bureau’s Royal Rituals Division, and Chatchai Pinngern, chief of the Brahmin rituals office, plus officials from other agencies.
Processed wood from the trees will be used for decoration of the royal crematorium at Sanam Luang and for making dok mai jun or flowers crafted from the agarwood trees.
As part of the ancient rites of royal cremation, Brahmin priests will have to perform a rite in front of the trees before they are felled. The rite will be held at 2.09pm on November 14.
There will be various kinds of offerings made during the felling rite for the selected trees.
Sacred water will be poured around the threes and a golden axe will be symbolic cast down on one of the four trees to start the felling rite.
The rite will be held around the tree No 15, and the park officials had to prepare the ground around it for officials and members of the public to observe the ritual.
The four trees will be cut down simultaneously from 2.09pm to 2.39pm in accordance with sacred timings selected by Brahmin priests.

Dimensions
Pichet Inruang, a park official, said the four trees were selected because of their proper width and height. The tree No 14 is 203cm wide and 15 metres high, while tree No 11 is 178cm wide and 11 metres high. Tree No 10 is 175cm wide and 14 metres high and tree No 15 is 142cm wide and 15 metres high. They have 4.92 cubic metres 2.77 cubic metres, 3.41 cubic metres and 2.09 cubic metres of wood respectively, he said.
The four trees have mild fragrance and they are straight, he added.
The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department has already approved the cut and procession of the four threes and a committee of officials has been assigned to oversee the felling and processing of the trees.
Agarwood trees from the Kui Buri National Park have been used for the royal cremations of Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother and HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, the Princess Sister, as well as the cremation of the late Supreme Patriarch.

THE government is pushing for a comprehensive set of long-term measures to reduce the rice acreage and promoting alternative crops to prevent a repeat of the current rice price slump.
Both short-term and long-term measures will be discussed at a second special meeting today of the National Rice Policy Committee, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, as the government is under pressure to help rice farmers hit hard by a record low paddy prices.
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry permanent secretary Thirapat Prayoonsithi, who yesterday held a meeting of senior agriculture officials, said the ministry would implement proactive measures to encourage farmers to grow alternative cash crops along with rice in a bid to reduce the overall rice acreage.
At present, the first annual rice crop yields about 23 million tonnes of paddy, while the second crop yields another 8 million tonnes. But the government is aiming to halve the second crop, to just 4 million tonnes, to prevent an oversupply of milled rice. (A tonne of paddy usually yields about two- thirds of a tonne of milled rice).
Domestic consumption is now about 10 million tonnes of milled rice, while annual exports range from 8-10 million tonnes.
Industry sources have said the current price slump stemmed from an oversupply due to the previous government’s massive rice pledging scheme. This left the government with a large amount of rice in state warehouses – over 8 million tonnes, way over the 2-3 million tonnes usually seen before the Yingluck Shinawatra regime’s unprecedented pledging scheme.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, both short-term and long-term measures are required to solve rice farmers’ problems. So, officials will have to convince community leaders to get farmers to plant more diverse cash crops, such as sorghum, mung beans, maize and sugar cane, to reduce dependence on the rice crop, as too much rice has lead to low prices. Farmers will also have to improve the quality of farmland for other cash crops.

Short-term measures
For short-term measures, the Commerce Ministry aims to tackle the rice price slump with various measures while the Agriculture Ministry will work with other agencies to buy rice directly from farmers for packaging and retail sales.
Suriyasai Katasila, deputy rector of Rangsit University’s College of Social Innovation, said the government should use this opportunity to reform the agriculture sector with a 20-year national strategy, as the rice management system should be strengthened so it can no longer be manipulated by politicians.
Suriyasai said it could not be denied that the current plunge in the price of rice was caused by the government’s over-stocking of rice, which was a consequence of the previous government’s pledging scheme. So, former PM Yingluck and her Pheu Thai Party should accept this, rather than making “dramatic” reactions to the farmers’ plight.
Meanwhile, former Pheu Thai MP Amnuay Klangpa urged the government to speed up its subsidy scheme, as it had yet to reach farmers in Lop Buri, which is his political stronghold.
“These farmers will have a lot |of rice paddy soon and they still have to sell it to rice mills at |low prices. They rely on wet-season rice farming. Without help, their lives will be badly affected,” he said.
In Phichit in the Central region, farmers have started to sell their Hom Mali rice directly to consumers to avoid the low price offered by middle men. This has meant they can get as much as Bt35 per kilo or Bt35,000 per tonne, as Hom Mali fetches a higher price than normal white rice, which is now bringing just Bt5,000-6,000 per tonne of paddy or Bt5-6 per kilo.
Jamras Sua-dee, a Phichit farmer, said his 35 rai of farmland had suffered because the price of paddy had dropped from Bt9,000 to Bt10,000 per tonne last year to a record low, so many farmers had started to get their rice milled to sell it directly to consumers to get a better return.
In Kalasin in the Northeast, authorities said they are ready to implement the government’s latest measure to help farmers by offering a loan for rice paddy at Bt13,000 per tonne so farmers don’’t have to sell the crop now and can wait for prices to go up.
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives said it will offer the loan at an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum to give farmers an option to hold on to their paddy until the domestic price rises.
Many government and private sector units, including provincial army units, have also bought rice directly from farmers for their own consumption in a bid to help shore up the domestic rice price.

The recorded clip shows Acharanat drag the motorcyclist, Kittisak Singto, by his sweater collar, after he accused Kittisak of scratching the back of his Mini Cooper car. The video shows the TV host punching him in the face a couple of times, and demanding that he prostrate himself before the car.
The incident took place on Friday in Bangkok’s Yannawa district.
According to a local traffic police officer, the 28-year-old TV host and Kittisak decided to settle the complaint filed at Yannawa Police Station on the day, with both apologising to each other and no charges being pressed.
Kittisak, according to a traffic policeman, explained that his motorcycle was bumped from behind by a taxi, which led to his two-wheeler ramming into the Mini Cooper. Kittisak was unsuccessful in chasing the fleeing taxi but when he returned to the site of the incident, he ran into an angry Acharanat, who allegedly assaulted him.
The motorcyclist, who suffered a broken nose and a swollen face, planned to file a police complaint yesterday, along with medical certificates and the clip as evidence.
Kittisak’s sister Sukaya Singto, who brought him to the hospital, said they had not been able to contact Acharanat after he offered to compensate her brother for his injuries. The viral clip was also released without the siblings’ knowledge, she stressed.
The superintendent of Yannawa Police Col Pongsak Sapla-or said the complaint would lead to a criminal charge and could not be withdrawn. Acharanat and Kittisak would soon be called for further questioning, he said.
Deputy police spokesperson Pol Colonel Krisana Pattanacharoen said there are two cases linked to the event. The first was Kittisak allegedly scratching Acharanat’s car by colliding his motorcycle into it and attempting to flee the scene. Acharanat should have filed a complaint with local police, Krisana said.
However, the second case would be one of physical assault, if the alleged victim files a criminal complaint. “All commuters should be cautious and patient. Any assault will only cause a lose-lose situation,” he cautioned.
Acharanat’s employers GMM TV said the celebrity would hold a press briefing about the incident today.
Meanwhile, a hashtag, translated from Thai as “#prostratemycar”, hit the top of Twitter’s hashtag trend in Thailand yesterday.
MINI-TH, an independent Facebook page with interest in Mini Cooper cars, posted a photo of the car involved in the incident with a caption that said: “I’m not sacred. You don’t need to prostrate before me”, attracting thousands of likes.

Electricity is generated on campus from solar cells and is managed via a “smart-grid” system that can help the university save substantially on energy bills, Associate Professor Wattanapong Rakwichian, dean of the university’s School of Energy and Environment (SEEN), said.
He said smart-grid technology was now at a developed stage and would become more crucial in the future.
Smart grid technology is integrates information and communications technology (ICT) for a system to manage power in a centralised or distributed grid. A smart grid is an essential feature in organising power distribution from renewable sources. It can help optimise power generation by communicating between consumer demands and electricity generators.
Phayao is the only university in the Asean region that provides energy-management and smart-grid technology programmes in both master’s and doctoral degrees
SEEN has employed research on smart micro-grids and aims to be a demonstration site for smart-grid. A research grant has been provided by Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, within the Ministry of Energy.
Smart micro-grid systems will be implemented as pilot projects in Laos and the Philippines under international cooperation, with SEEN playing a leading role. There is also potential to expand smart-grid technology into the Thai business sector in the near future.
Wattanapong said the private sector was now showing an interest in investing in smart-grid networks, which has led to a growing demand for smart-grid professionals.
Recently, the Asean Centre for Energy (ACE), a regional energy policy agency which has its headquarters in Jakarta, endorsed the University of Phayao as the founding institution of the Asean Smart Grid Congress that enables smart-grid experts to share and exchange their experiences.
The University of Phayao hosted the first Asean Smart Grid Congress last December, bringing together experts and researchers from the academic and industrial worlds, as well as potential users from 13 countries to exchange knowledge and ideas on economics, technology and other aspects of smart grid.
The Asean Smart Grid Congress will be held annually in Asean countries. It will be hosted by Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines from 2016 to 2019 respectively.

The suspected insurgents also detonated a bomb at the scene of the shooting in an attempt to harm officers responding to report of the shooting.
Pol Sergeant Anusorn Songsuwan, 32, of Munoh Police Station, was shot while riding a motorcycle on the Tak Bai-Sungai Kolok Road in Tambon Pasemas at around 10.30pm on Friday.
The bullet hit his left ankle but he continued riding to get help from rangers at a nearby checkpoint.
Thirty minutes later, rangers heard two explosions from the area where Anusorn was shot, so they went to inspect and seal off the area as safety precaution. It was suspected that a bomb was planted at a power pole near the scene of the shooting to harm officers investigating the attack on the officer.
Police suspected the shooting and bombing were part of ongoing unrest in the far South targeting security officers.
Police investigated the scene of the shooting yesterday morning and found that besides the bomb in a 20kg cooking gas that broke the power pole in half, the insurgents also threw spikes on the road 100 metres from the scene. They found that insurgents had hidden in roadside bushes to fire at the policeman with three M16 rifles – 60 spent cartridges were collected from the scene.
Police learned that the rifles were stolen from defence volunteers during a shooting attack in front of Luboh Lusong School on September 29, which killed a volunteer and injured two others.
Meanwhile, deputy permanent secretary for Justice Thawatchai Thaikhiew confirmed yesterday that the ministry was working on remedial measures for victims in the deep South, plus witness protection. They have also sent experienced prosecutors and judges to handle security cases while promoting a witness protection scheme, he said.
In regard to concern over human rights violations, the ministry had trained 3,400 military officers and police in the region about human rights and given them a handbook for implementing operations in the region, he said. Plus, the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) could check on all steps.
Thawatchai’s remarks came in response to comments previously by NHRC member Angkhana Neelapaijit that some rights violations by state officials who went unpunished could spur violence in the region, so state officials must exercise their authority carefully.

Pol Maj-General Jirapat Phumjit, acting deputy city police chief, said 27 roads around Sanam Luang and the adjacent Grand Palace would be closed as on previous weekends, as police tried to prevent vehicles other than the shuttle buses coming into Rajdamnoen Nok Road’s Jor Por Ror intersection, Lan Luang intersection, Borommaratchachonnani Road’s Arun Amarin intersection, and Sanam Chai’s Raksa Dindaen roundabout.
He said the road closure had been effective in getting people to use shuttle buses.
With the university staging its rehearsal yesterday, Jirapat said police had urged parents and students not to bring their cars but to use the shuttle buses that pick people up at various locations in the city. He said cars would also be prohibited from parking inside the campus today from 5am onwards.
Motorists were advised to avoid using Na Phra That Road and nearby streets around the TU Tha Phra Chan Campus this and next weekends.
Jirapat said more information could be obtained by calling hotline 1197 or visiting the http://www.trafficpolice.go.th website.
Meanwhile, 17 chartered buses carrying 750 Maha Sarakham residents departed for Bangkok late on Friday night to allow people to pay their respects before the Royal Urn of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the Grand Palace’s Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall.
The trip was sponsored by local administrative organisations, with another four more trips planned on November 24, December 13, January 1 and January 20.
Another 18 chartered buses carrying 750 residents departed Phuket for Bangkok yesterday morning – as part of the province’s scheme to send 3,000 representatives to pay their respects to the monarch. More trips are scheduled for November 25, December 14, January 2.