Thailand’s Supreme Patriarch, who headed the country’s order of Buddhist monks for more than two decades, died on Thursday at the age of 100. Doctors said that Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara died at Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, where he had been treated since being admitted for an illness more than a decade ago. His “overall condition deteriorated and he passed away at 7:30 pm from septicemia,” or a severe blood infection, the doctors said in a statement. In 2004, a senior Buddhist monk was appointed to work on his behalf, but that monk died earlier this year. His successor will be formally appointed by Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej.—AP