On December 11th FIDE President had an official working visit to Thailand, where in Bangkok he met with the leadership of Thailand chess federation and the chess community of this country. On the same day at the Buddhist Dhammakayya temple Kirsan Ilyumzhinov participated in the 5th annual festival of Buddhist pilgrims who had training as part of the "World Morality Revival Project". Young people from 73 regions of Thailand and from around the world took part in this grand project, sponsored by the Buddhist community of Thailand, government and nongovernmental organizations of this country. The organizers of the project annually conduct a traditional Buddhist festival "Day of Unity of the Good Star" and invite the world famous political figures and stars of show business, science and culture.
According to the regulations on each of the festivals (the current is the 5th festival) a keynote speech is performed by one of the world known religious, political or public figures before all the participants of the festival. The nomination of the keynote speaker is identified by survey among the participants, and then by the decision of the organizing committee. This year's festival was the most representative and largest in its history. A stadium with spaciousness for 1 million 50 thousand people was built especially for this event. It is noteworthy that the temple, near which the stadium was built, was adorned with million of Buddhas statues established by each participant of the project.

From the official invitation to FIDE President from the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 5th festival "Day of Unity of the Good Star" Mr. Ananta Asavabohina: "Last year's festival was attended by 500 thousand participants, this year the number of participants has increased significantly, reaching 1 million people ... The Committee of Dhammakayya temple and me, the Chairman of the organizing committee of the Fifth Day of Unity of the Good Star, would like to invite you to this wonderful event, to make a keynote speech to support and inspire students, our future and to contribute to the changing of the world. I strongly believe that the roar of the Tiger 11 December 2010 will give rise to positive changes and mark the victory of light over the dark forces”. Mr. Ananta Asavabohina, one of the leading businessmen and public figures in Thailand, made a private visit to Kalmykia several years ago. As he said in an interview with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, he was inspired by the experience of Kalmykia on the revival of Buddhist culture and the introduction of chess in the schools of the republic and after that organized such grand project in Thailand.

In his speech before audience of millions Kirsan Ilyumzhinov told about Kalmykia and welcomed the audience in three languages - Kalmyk, Thai and Japanese. He also spoke about the enduring role of Buddhism to the Kalmyk people, stressing the great importance of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's visits to the steppe republic for the spiritual rebirth of Kalmykia. FIDE President spoke about the value of chess for the world culture in general and to the educational process of children and youth in particular. As an example, he cited the experience of Kalmykia on the introduction of chess into the school curriculum. He emphasized that today this experience is replicated in other major countries. After his speech, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov solemnly presented prizes to outstanding students. During the visit  FIDE President also held meetings with representatives of the Government.

The keynote speech of FIDE President is available here