Giving Alms

Giving alms is a tradition in many countries. It is felt that the giver receives as much merit as the recipient. You give what you can, but the merit is the same whether it is a lot or a small amount. In Luang Prabang, we are living next to one of the more beautiful temples, (there are apparently almost 100 in the city) and faintly hear the morning gongs at 4AM. The monks get up to worship and meditate, and then, at about 6, they go through the streets begging for their breakfast. They walk barefoot, carrying their begging bowl.

We got a little more sleep: We arose at 5, left the hotel at 5:30 and walked through the sleeping town, hearing only the sounds of roosters, and seeing only early risers – women sweeping their steps, and a man grinding coconut and cooking sticky rice over an open fire. His wife combines the coconut and the rice, and makes cakes, which she then dries in the sun to sell. The husks of the coconuts are used for fire another day. (We have learned that here, nothing is wasted.)

Soon, we come to a row of little seats set on a woven mat, with baskets in front of them, topped by a shawl.

We are instructed to remove our shoes, and helped to wrap the shawls around ourselves. Then, we remove the lid of the basket and start to make little balls of sticky rice, placing them in the upside down lid until it is full. Then we put the balls back into the basket and replace the lid, so as to keep the rice warm.

We wait patiently, and then we hear drumming from the temple, and soon a line of monks arrive. Each pauses in front of you briefly, and holds his bowl so that you can drop in one of the balls of rice.

Soon, more monks arrive and we run out of rice balls, then frantically dig in the basket to pinch together a few grains of rice to deposit into the bowls.

We are not the only people giving alms. Local townspeople have also congregated to give rice. Some of them also give small bananas and also wrapped cookies or candies, or cooked food.

Some of the monks are elderly, but there are also young novices – young boys can enter the monastery at 9 or 10. Most of them are very thin. We learn that the monks eat only twice a day – breakfast in the morning after they return from begging, and then lunch. After that they can drink, but not eat. This must be really difficult for the young men. We all know how much growing boys can eat!

When we are almost out of rice, we gather together the balance into one basket and take it into the temple, where a monk receives it and gives us a blessing.

We go back to the hotel, eagerly awaiting our breakfast, which is obviously a lot less meager than that of the monks!

With apologies that some of the photos are out of focus – the monks move quickly! – posted from Luang Prabang, Laos 2/1/18