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Buddhist nuns follow orders to pray for 'brain dead' Thai princess in hospital

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Footage shows Buddhist nuns praying for the stricken Thai princess today while she is reportedly being artificially kept alive in a hospital after collapsing while running with her dogs.

Temples across Thailand have been ordered by the state to hold 'North Korea style' prayer sessions for Princess Bajrakitiyabha who was taken into intensive care on Wednesday, December 14.

Heir-to-the-throne Bajrakitiyabha, 44, was expected to take over the world's richest monarchy in the coming years but she was taking part in a canine training event when she collapsed and lost consciousness in Nakhon Ratchasima, in the northeast region.

The diplomat and lawyer, who also held a raft of ceremonial military positions, was given CPR and treated at a local hospital before being flown by military helicopter to the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in the capital Bangkok in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Monks and nuns across the country received orders from the state to pray for Bajrakitiyabha. Buddhist chief Somdet Phra Ariyavangsagatayana from the state National Office of Buddhism ordered all Thai temples in the country and overseas to hold daily chanting sessions for the princess, an official announcement from the said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha flew back early from an overseas trip while several other senior members of the country's notorious royal family also returned from abroad.

Dozens of monarchy supporters gathered outside and inside the hospital on Friday morning holding portraits of the princess, who was being lined up to replace the aging controversial 'playboy' leader Maha Vajiralongkorn - best know for wearing crop tops and keeping a harem of 'sex soldiers' in a luxury German hotel during the pandemic lockdown.

Wreaths of flowers were also laid inside the hospital lobby in front of a large shrine made for the royal and palace guards in white military uniforms were scattered around the building and its car parks.

Thai royal watcher Andrew MacGregor Marshall, an author and lecturer, said the prognosis was 'very grim' for the princess who he said was 'brain dead' but being artificially kept alive 'to avoid disrupting the New Year holidays'. He claimed that the princess suffered a 'subarachnoid haemorrhage in her skull that then caused her heart to stop beating'.

MacGregor said: 'The latest information from royal sources is that the palace may try to keep her artificially alive on an ECMO machine at Chulalongkorn Hospital for days, maybe even until after New Year, at which point they will turn off the machine and announce she has died.

'They're worried that if New Year festivities are cancelled and the tourism & hospitality industries take another hit at this crucial time of year, after all the pain they suffered during the pandemic, it will further inflame anti-monarchy sentiment which is already rampant.

'The military is orchestrating vast North Korea-style displays of devotion with large groups of uniformed soldiers kneeling to pray for her recovery. Buddhists and Muslims across the kingdom have also been told to pray several times a day.'

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