The Passing Away of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana

With deepest regret we inform you of the passing away of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana, His Majesty the King's sister, at the age of 84, on January 2nd 2008 .  It is a great loss for the Thai people as throughout her life, she had numerous great achievements personally and socially.  As a young princess, she graduated at the top of her class at the International School of Geneva, ranking third in all Switzerland.  She later obtained degrees from Lausanne University's Faculty of Science in chemistry as well as from the Faculty of Social Science, in literature, philosophy and psychology.   

Her Royal Highness was at the head of over sixty charitable foundations, most of which had previously been presided over by Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother.  For Buddhists, one of her greatest contributions was to head the Committee that revised and transcribed the Pali texts of the Tipitaka into Roman alphabets:  the resulting scriptures were sent all over the world.   Her numerous accomplishments in various other fields , including health care, sports and music, are mentioned in tributes from major English language newspapers such as those by the Bangkok Post and The Nation at these URLs: 
  
http://www.bangkokpost.net/topstories/topstories.php?id=124864
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/01/03/headlines/headlines_30061004.php    

In Thai there is the official 84th birthday anniversary website established last May:  http://www.hrh84yrs.org/  
  
With her countless good deeds, her kusala and siilas shall bless her with all the very best wherever she may be. 

Amara Chayabongse, 
Webmaster, WFB-HQ.org 

December 4th, 2008