Yesterday, I went with some monks on their morning alms round. Monks are not allowed to hoard food. Nor are they allowed to cook. So, in order to survive they have to go out in the morning to receive food from Buddhist followers. When they come back, they sort through the food. Some food they will eat straight away for breakfast. Other food they will save for their last meal of the day at 11 a.m.
The temple bells ring at four am. The temple dogs start howling. My friend Jibba jumps from his thin mattress as he has done every morning of his adulthood. He finds his robe somewhere in the dark and goes into to the kuti washroom. There’s movement in the dark all over this dormitory. Nobody turns on any lights. In less than five minutes he’s meditating in half-lotus in the viharn with his brother monks. This place has candles. Jibba is a small man with a wide, agreeable face, a head that is wider than it is deep–more of a bas relief than a bust, shaven like a
Far from the commercial stuff, from naughty newspaper articles there are still monks devoted to the other.
In year 2006, the chief of the Religious Affairs Department has sought the use of state television airtime to air admirable activities of Buddhist monks. Good and decent monks still exist in Thailand despite so much news about monks being bad in the papers these days.
Like in most other Theravada nations, Buddhism in Thailand is represented primarily by the presence of Buddhist monks, who serve as officiants on ceremonial occasions, as well as being responsible for preserving and conveying the teachings of the Buddha.
During the latter half of the 20th century, most monks in Thailand began their careers by serving as dek wat (Thai: เด็กวัด) (literally, ‘child[ren] of the wat’). Dek wat are traditionally no younger than eight, and do minor housework around the temple. The primary reason for becoming a dek wat is to gain a basic education,
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