Thursday, November 7, 2013

A Monks Life

I left for the dump today when it was still dark at about 6am. I pay a local man to drive me each morning, it costs 200 baht both ways which is just under $7.00 CAD. On the way out today the streets were filled with monks out collecting food. Buddhist monks all over Asia go out very early in the morning to collect food from locals. Monks are not allowed to work or ask for things so everything they need is donated by locals. Thais especially women make merit by giving to the monks, women are not allowed into the monk-hood so one of the few ways they can make merit is by donating food and other things to the temples.

We must have passed over 30 monks this morning as we drove to the dump, they were often very young boys. The monks life is challenging and difficult but can be very rewarding (or so I have heard). One of the interesting little facts is that when they go out in the morning to collect alms they go barefoot, later in the day they wear sandals.