Meeting a Monk

I have always been fascinated by the lives of Monks since travelling to China when I was 16 and visiting many monks’ temples. I remember the experience of meeting the Chinese Monks as being daunting. They weren’t allowed to make eye contact with a woman let alone speak with them. This is why when I arrived in Chiang Mai in April and a vanload of monks drove past smiling and waving I just about fell over in shock. After meeting and speaking in depth with a monk in Chiang Mai over the weekend on my birthday, I learned that the lives of Thai monks are very different to those of Chinese Monks.

We stopped off to get a smoothie outside a temple on our way back from breakfast on Saturday morning. Sitting outside having his breakfast was a beautiful Thai monk dressed in his orange robes. He greeted us and invited us to sit down and speak with him. His English was so good, he told us, because everyday he spent chatting to foreigners while they waited for their smoothies outside his temple. He shared with them what he had learned in his Buddhist studies, in return practicing his English and hearing all of the different accents that come through Chiang Mai everyday.

To be a monk in Thailand is not a lifetime or even long term commitment. Any male (or female if you want to be a nun) can leave their normal lives for a short or long period of time, and become a monk, easily slipping back to normal life afterwards. Obviously the longer one stays a monk the more benefits they will reap from the experience. It is a given that every man in Thailand will be a monk for sometime in their lives. While you are a monk there are certain rules to follow. The monks are of the highest ranking citizen in Thailand. They aren’t allowed to work, so rely completely on the society to provide them with food. They are allowed to ride the bus for free, and are given hampers of food called alms in return for them blessing the people that are giving it to them. Here in Mae Sai where we eat breakfast, the people from the restaurant prepare the alms for them everyday then kneel before the monk each morning while he sings to them, blessing them. While you are a monk you aren’t allowed a wife or husband, and aren’t allowed to touch females.

Buddhism knowledge and practice is clearly engrained in the lives of Thai people from a young age; my Grade 1 class sits in meditation for at least ten minutes each morning. It’s a beautiful culture and lifestyle to live by and I hope to learn more about it in my remaining few months in Thailand.