The funeral procession began at dawn in Roh’s hometown. Villagers lined Bongha’s streets as the hearse blanketed with white chrysanthemums departed for Seoul.
More than 2,500 were invited to a formal ceremony in the courtyard of the stately palace in the heart of ancient Seoul, where Roh’s portrait sat on a bed of 1 million chrysanthemums laid in the shape of a Rose of Sharon, South Korea’s national flower.
Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns chanted prayers as part of the multi-faith ceremony.
Roh’s ashes were to return to his village to be buried with a small gravestone as he wished.
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