Hundreds of mourners, royal soldiers and monks have gathered at a Bangkok temple for the funeral of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Thai owner of Leicester City football club who died in a helicopter crash last week.

Saturday was the first day of a week-long funeral ceremony for Vichai who was killed, along with four others, when his helicopter came down in a car park outside Leicester City stadium last Saturday, just moments after the game had finished.

Vichai’s body arrived back in Thailand on Friday night on a private jet. The bodies of his aide Kaveporn Punpare and employee Nusara Suknamai, who also died in the crash, arrived on Saturday morning.

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The first stage of the funeral was held at Debsirindrawas temple in Bangkok on Saturday evening and was marked with a traditional Buddhist bathing rite and a recitation ceremony in which monks will say prayers from religious texts every night for a week.

Vichai was the fifth richest man in Thailand, having made his fortune as the head of the multi-billion-dollar duty-free shopping company King Empire. Much of his success was credited to his ability to negotiate Thailand’s turbulent political environment, a rare ally of both the exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the current ruling military junta.

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In a mark of Vichai’s status in Thailand, King Maha Vajiralongkorn provided blessed funeral water and a royal urn to be used as part of the funeral rites.

Court musicians dressed in ceremonial red played drums and flutes during the funeral march through the temple, while members of Vichai’s family wore black. After the funeral, his body will be kept in the temple for 100 days before being cremated.

Members of the Leicester City team, including the striker Jamie Vardy, goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and captain Wes Morgan, as well as the coach Claude Puel, were due to fly to Thailand after their match against Cardiff on Saturday to pay their respects to the owner. Vichai bought the club in 2010 and many in the team have expressed their admiration of him and their sorrow at his death.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A monk attends a procession with royal soldiers at the Debsirindrawas temple. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Vardy told Sky Sports news it had been the hardest week of his life and that attending the funeral was “massively important” for the team.

“We’re a close-knit group, like one big family, and one of the main reasons for that is Vichai. So for us to be there is massively important,” he said.