A monk for a week

CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Sun 26 Feb 2012 11:04
While we were staying with Alan and Noi we had the privelage of attending a Bhuddist ceremony for one of Noi's nephews who was to be ordained as a monk in their village temple. Some young men become a monk at a very young age and it becomes their vocation, others are ordained in their twenties staying within the temple for a few months or even weeks as a way of gaining kudos in the eyes of Bhudda for themselves and their families.
Noi's nephew works for the forestry commision in Chiang mai and could only be released for a week. Even so he had to go through the ritual head shaving and purifying.
Friends family and even strangers like ourselves are invited to take part, cutting off a lock of hair before the monk takes over and shaves
his head and eyebrows.
 
The monk then pours water over the young mans head and body in an act of purification and again others are invited to do the same
before he can don his interim white robes.
The final part of the day 1 ceremony takes part in the main temple before the young men go back to their homes for the last time before re-entering the temple of their period of meditation.