Sangha Judicial Council of Cambodia chairperson Samdech Preah Dhammalikhita Luas Lay passed away on Tuesday evening at the age of 106 after a long battle with illness.

His passing was revealed through a notice from the chief monks of Cambodia that was obtained by The Post on Wednesday morning.

The passing of the First Deputy Sanghanayaka of Cambodia and chief of Sansom Kosal pagoda saddened the chief monks of Cambodia, student monks, religious and laymen the most.

His body was laid in Sansom Kosal pagoda in Boeung Tompun commune, Meanchey district, Phnom Penh to organise the last rights.

On Tuesday evening, after receiving the sad news, Prime Minister Hun Sen visited the pagoda hurriedly to pay his respect to the body of Luas Lay.

At that moment, the prime minister has formed an ad hoc committee comprising the relevant authorities to best organise the funeral.

On Tuesday night, Hun Sen wrote a letter to Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, stressing: “The passing of Samdech Preah Dhammalikhita Luas Lay is the greatest loss of the monk to promote Buddhism and he was also a poet full of deep knowledge.

“Samdech Preah Dhammalikhita Luas Lay left his countless works in the Buddhist and secularist world. He had generously contributed to sustaining the humanitarian movement of the Cambodian Red Cross.”

Born in 1914, in Ponhea Leu district in Kandal province, Luas Lay had 10 siblings – seven brothers and three sisters. He was the fifth son in the family

The venerable Luas Lay had entered monkhood at the age of 12. In the Khmer Rouge regime 1975-1979, impious people had forced him to leave the monkhood in Kampong Cham province and attempted to kill him twice, but in vain.

When the regime collapsed, he had returned to monkhood until he passed away on Tuesday evening.

During his lifetime, Luas Lay had written 13 items of the Dharma Book and four stories.