Splish Splash

Ah Water Festival (or Songkran as it is known here in Thailand). A time for heavy drinking, fighting and motorcycle accidents. Oh and that part about the water too. When asking many people about water festival, a smile often comes across their face. It seems like everyone loves it. They say it is so much fun and everyone has a great time. That is of course for all of those people who don't get into fights and accidents. But even they enjoy it until that fateful moment.

As to exactly what Water Festival celebrates I had a difficult time getting a straight answer. Yes it is a Buddhist holiday and yes Buddhists go to the temple and have special food and honor their elders and yes you throw water on people and have a good old jolly time, but exactly why??? What is the history of this tradition? It was like trying to pry teeth to actually get an answer to what I thought was a relatively simple question. So I decided finally that good old Google might be my best bet.

And here is what I found:

Songkran is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the "Water Festival" as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.

The Songkran tradition is recognized as a valuable custom for the Thai community, society and religions. The value for family is to provide the opportunity for family members to gather in order to express their respects to the elders by pouring scented water onto the hands of their parents and grandparents and to present them gifts including making merits to dedicate the result to their ancestors. The elders in return wish the youngsters good luck and prosperity.

When I asked some of my students from Burma what the difference between Water Festival in Burma and Water Festival (they are predominantly Buddhist in Burma as well) in Thailand was they seemed to think it was a bit different. They felt that in Burma there was still a lot of religious significance left in the holiday. This is a holiday which lasts for about four days. They said in Burma people would visit a different temple on each of the four mornings while in Thailand, most people only visit the temple on one morning. It also seemed to them that Water Festival in Thailand was even a bigger party than in Burma with people starting to drink and begin merry making in the wee hours of the morning. Well all I can say is from what I saw is the people in the town where we are living know how to have a good time during water festival.

Oh yes, but what about those accidents and fights and such. That is not good is it? No it is not good and we were privilege to that as well. Weren’t we lucky!!! I have heard reports that up to 90% of the annual motorcycle accidents in Thailand happen during these four days. By day two of the festival this year we heard the death count in the country was up to 200. There were two deaths in our town by then. Laura had to visit the hospital herself (not related to the water festival) and saw a foreigner who was quite pissed that he had totaled a rented bike and had gotten injured in the process probably thanks to some kids throwing water at him while he was driving. The wet roads as a result of the water throwing, coupled with the overall state of drunkenness of the country is not exactly a great mixture for safe driving conditions. Oh let’s not forget the fighting. Laura was lucky to witness a fight involving beer bottles and screaming profanities induced by copious amounts of alcohol. And it was between two members of Casey’s organization no less but on the grounds of her organization. Oh joy!!!


Furthermore, there is the wasting of water and in the middle of the dry season. Granted I understand that it is tradition and I am all for keeping cultural traditions alive, but I cannot even imagine how much water is wasted for these four days. And in many places the water throwing starts weeks in advance. Today the tradition of water throwing has been what I would say steroid induced. People stand on the side of the road with hoses and huge 10 gallon buckets and soak all of the passing vehicles and pedestrians. Also granted that it is great fun and I participated in it for one afternoon, but four days of excessive water wasting does seem a bit excessive.

And people love water festival, you say? Yes, they certainly do! There are some not so nice things about it but it is a joyous occasion. People dancing on the street, throngs of happy children splashing each other with water, colorful festivals and parties, traditional food. It is hard to not get enraptured with the ‘merry-making.’

Unfortunately for us, we were confined to a hospital room for a majority of the festival. Luckily it was not an injury from a fight or accident but instead for something called Cellulitis that had attacked Laura’s leg probably because of a Staph infection. Also unfortunately, Laura has recently been a walking medical case and we may be our town’s hospital’s most frequent customers in the past month. However, surprisingly this has proved not be the worst situation as we have been very impressed with this local hospital. It is clean, the doctors seem like they know what they are doing and they explain what is actually happening with your condition. These are all things that often did not happen in the Philippines, even in hospitals in large cities, and this one in Thailand is in a fairly small town. So Thailand health care gets a thumbs up from us.

On the first day of the festival, Laura’s leg had yet to get nasty so we were able to enjoy a bit of the festivities. It ended up being quite a low key and relaxing day since the women at Laura’s office were not too interested in getting soaked, imbibing copious amounts of alcohol, dancing in the street or getting into accidents and fights. Instead they chose to stay at home and make traditional snacks that they make in Burma. We added what little help we could to the cooking experience and we made enough rice snacks to feed an army. We made two kinds: one sweet made of rice powder and sugar (which was alright) and one savory made of rice powder, pork, garlic chives, green onions, and tomatoes (which was delicious). Both of the rice snacks were wrapped in banana leaves and steamed to cook them (this process seems quite ubiquitous in SE Asia and I love it). The rest of the day was spent just chilling and watching the little babies run around the office.

This was a good way to start off the holiday but on the second day Laura’s leg and ankle had swollen to the quite an unbearable size and let’s just say it did not look too pretty (nor did it feel too great). We decided to head back to the hospital (the day before they had just prescribed antibiotics) and the doctor there felt that Laura should be admitted in order to give her antibiotics intravenously. So we gathered our things and headed to the hospital and settled in for a few days. Luckily after two days the swelling in Laura’s foot had gone down considerably and it felt a lot better. She was discharged and we were free to enjoy the last afternoon of Songkran.

We headed back to our places and loaded in the back of a pick-up with other folks from both of our offices. We also brought along two huge buckets of water to throw at others as we drove by. We drove through town and got absolutely soaked from the water throwers on the sides of the street and in other vehicles. It was certainly a good time although a bit chilly. Oddly enough, during the festival this year which is usually the hottest and driest time of the year, it was cloudy and there were even a few sprinkles.


After driving through town we disembarked at the nearby river where probably a hundred small bamboo huts had been set up to sit under and enjoy the river. The place was packed and people were enjoying the holiday with friends and family. The network of bamboo in the water was quite impressive and the number of people was also astounding. In the early evening we left for our next destination which was the lake and plaza in the middle of town. We waited for the procession to pass which included a number of floats with beauties from the local villages. The highlight of the parade for everyone however was the truck with a Buddha statue on it. The people would hand the people in the truck an offering of water which would be poured over the statue. The water would then be retrieved (now in a scented and colored form) from the basin below the Buddha and given back to the people that gave the offering. This water was now blessed and people sprinkled one another to offer good luck and show respect for their elders.

It was unfortunate that we were not able to be involved in more of the festivities but I do feel that we got our fill. In reality how many days of water fights can one truly handle. I enjoyed our first Water Festival even if half of it was spent in a hospital. We came away unscathed and uninjured which is more than I can say for others. After hearing so much about it, it was nice to see what Water Festival really is like and it was a nice chance to relax and join in a bit of the fun.

Baby Blues

Laura's organization is crawling with infants, literally. Only one of the members living at the house is currently sans hubby or child. Right now the totals up to 5 kids.

The latest edition arrived last week. A cute little boy born to parents who, honestly, didn't seem too thrilled about the idea of being parents. As the mother told me "I don't like babies." She also mentioned that her husband would prefer she continue school instead of raising babies (he's a keeper for sure! Especially in these parts of the woods where many men do not hold the same views). It turns out that the baby was an accident and they really weren't planning on being parents just yet.

After hearing their story it made me glad I come from a place where parents have so many options about what to do if they have not planned their pregnancy. In Thailand and in Burma, abortion is illegal, supposedly because of religious reasons. Buddhist religious reasons. If one has the money, time and passport one could travel to Singapore. Adoption in these places isn't really an option either. You can leave your baby at an orphanage, but there is little chance that it will get adopted. This is because if the child cannot be cared for by the parents then extended family are left with the burden (and/or the joy).

Along with the baby came a whole slew of traditions. It seems like the people of Burma are still very much rooted in their traditional culture, including superstitions. Because I find it interesting, I will list some, related to childbirth (and after), below:

After child birth the mother is confined to her room with the baby. She is not supposed to leave this room. She cannot do any work including cleaning, cooking or doing laundry. Someone brings all of her meals to her bedroom. To keep her from going crazy with boredom (my own opinion), people are allowed to visit her. This seclusion lasts for at least 1 month. Maybe more if the birth was a difficult one. I do not mind this practice, but it is a little troublesome knowing one of my best students is unable to attend my class, which is about 50 feet away from her room, because of this tradition.

For a month after the birth, the mother must not eat a multitude of foods from most vegetables to chicken and beef. The chicken and beef are not allowed because they will make her hurt if she eats them. Spicy food is a no go because it could cause diarrhea in the baby. Jack fruit, a type of vegetable, may lead to a lower output of breast milk. Therefore, the mother is left with little choices, which usually range from fried pork to fried fish. All things considered, I don't understand why MSG is OK for the mother, but vegetables are not. I also find it interesting that one of the few things they are allowed to eat is also one of the few things that doctors back home are telling mothers and mothers-to-be not to eat (fish).

Lastly, the mother must not bathe with water. Instead, a medicinal concoction is boiled up for her each day and she uses this to bathe.

At the end of the month, the parents hold a naming ceremony for the baby. There is also a little celebration. They say it is for the baby, but I suspect it is to celebrate the release of the mother from these rules back into the everyday life.

Run for the Border

Our Thai tourist visa was almost up. We had to make a run for the border to get a new 30 day non-visa tourist permit. Even though we are extremely close to Burma, there are no official crossings near our town, so we had to make the long trek up to the highest point in Thailand, where we crossed over into Burma.

The trek took a full day of travel and involved an inordinate amount of transfers. But, it went through some pretty country and it gave a chance to once again be one of the infinite number of tourists who visit the Land of Smiles.

Casey had this brilliant plan to combine business (the visa run) with pleasure (bird watching) and designed a magnificent fun-filled 4 day excursion. Since coming to Thailand Casey's bird nerdom has reached new levels due to the fact that there are so many amazing looking birds here and they are fairly easy to find. Birds are basically everywhere we go and this pleases Casey very much. Compared to the Philippines which also has a great number of bird species but a relative dearth in density, Thailand is a birding wonderland. In the Philippines it seems that most of their habitat has been destroyed or the birds are dinner (even those little tiny sparrows) which luckily is not the same in Thailand. Casey has even managed to drag Laura along in his bird excitement and she now too has her own binoculars which makes the birding a bit more enjoyable (sharing while perhaps a good idea does not work well in practice when it comes to birding as someone always inevitably misses a bird and is miffed as a result). Casey had been anticipating and planning this particular trip for the past two months and was incredibly excited to be on the way. Bird Nerds Away!!!

Our plan was to stop at Doi Chang Dao, a mountain between here and the border crossing, where the birding is known to be superb. This detour was to last 1.5 days. We had planned to hire a motorbike for the ascent up the mountain but the night before leaving Laura has some misgivings about 2 hefty Americans riding a dinky motorbike up a steep slope with their packs. Even though Laura kept saying she was going learn how to ride a manual motorbike, the skill never materialized, thus we were unable to rent two bikes. We weren't completely convinced that this would be an issue, until we tried to rent a motorbike and the owner suggested we find another means of transportation up the perilous mountainside. This sent Laura into a frenzy as visions of people flying over cliffs filled her head. She decided (again) that a motor was a terrible idea and made it quite clear that the plans should be altered. Unfortunately, Laura was not adamant about her views until we were AT our desired location. If she had made her views more clear before, we could have easily changed our plans. But it was already close to 7pm and we were in a small town and didn't know what to do.

Thank goodness the last northbound bus drove by and we were able to catch this to carry us 2 hours further north. We thus decided to head to the border and swing back around to the mountain before heading home. This would mean going about 2 hours out of the way later and would cost us considerably more money since we were to rent a car instead of a motorbike, but it seemed like the best option to make both of us happy.

The next morning we awoke before the crack of dawn to catch the mysterious 5:30 or 6 am bus to the border town. Trusty ole Lonely Planet once again turned its back on us. This wasn't too big of a deal, it just meant that instead of a nice long ride in one bus, we had many short trips on various different modes of transportation to take us to our destination.


The Border and Burma
Once at the border, we were thrilled with how easy everything went. We were a tad bit nervous because of the new Thai immigration laws that no one can seem to keep straight, but everything was a smooth as silk. We were a bit annoyed at the Burmese government for charging foreigners $10 for a day permit. Actually, they said it was ten dollars, but they asked for 500 Baht and it wasn't until we were inside the country did we realize they had jiped us for about $4.50 each. Needless to say, we were not happy about supplying the military junta with any more money that was absolutely necessary to get the job done.

The town on the other side, Tachilek, looked, not surprisingly, much like the Thai town across the river. The main difference being the type of lettering used on the signs - one was Burmese,the other Thai. But, we heard Thai and English spoken way more than Burmese and the border market seemed to be full of Thai paraphernalia. I imagined the vendors smuggling Thai-dubbed English VCD's over from Thailand in order to sell them back to Thai tourists. There were also an inordinate number of walking vendors selling a variety of products (mind you, not too wide though). The hot ticket items were 'Marlboro' cigarettes which were definitely not Marlboros, little electric hand held fans, gag playing cards with pictures of Saddam Hussein or half naked girls on them and viagra. Yes, viagra.


The market had one other notable mention. One of the first stalls we came across was a woman eagerly selling endangered animal parts. Monkey skulls, patches of tiger fur, bear's gall bladders, antelope and rhinoceros horns were all what she had on display. Now, I have a hard time believing that the more exotic items were authentic. Why would she be selling a pair of tiger teeth for only 200 Baht? This seemed a too good to be true. We gawked long and hard before running in the other direction.

After about 2 hours in Burma we decided we had had enough and jetted back across the border and towards the Mekong River. Near a small town along the river is Chiang Saen Lake. We had come to do some birding and to admire the scenery. We were excited because we have not had much opportunity in seeing waterbirds, so this was the time to get some "lifers" and to practice birding over water.


Lakeside Birding
While in Chiang Saen, we stayed at this nice little Western-style guesthouse. By western-style I do not be like people from Western countries. I mean in the style of the old wild west and Rawhide (for those Phoenicians). This seems to be a fairly common theme in Thailand, though we can't figure out why. The woman who runs the place is very informative and nice. We rented a motorbike from her and puttered along to the lake, stopping along the way for bird sightings.

The lake was gorgeous. There was a nice boardwalk above lilies and other wetland vegetation which harbored all sorts of wildlife. We birded until just before dark. All the while we kept hearing this loud unusual sound, which we expected to be a great water bird, but in fact belonged to the resident peacocks. Why there were exotic resident peacocks at a protected wetland, we'll never know. But they did make for a nice photo-op.



The next morning we got up bright and early to do some more birding around the lake. We did a little touring around the pleasant little town of Chiang Saen. Hundreds of years ago this was the center of an important kingdom and as a result the town and the surrounding area are littered with ruins. It reminded us much of Ayutthaya or the many other towns in Thailand where ruins (some just piles of rocks and others extremely impressive) are so commonplace. This town also had the further appeal of being situated on the Mekong River. I do not know why but I have always heard a lot about the Mekong (although I am not really sure in what context). Well part of the reason to come to Chiang Saen was to see this mighty river for ourselves. Upon arriving it looked like a big brown river and we said, "Well, there it is. It's the Mekong." I do not know what I was really expecting but next time I get a chance maybe I will take a ride on the river. But we did not have time on this trip. We could have stayed longer as this town certainly pleased us but we had already racked up about 40 species of birds already and we still had another destination on our minds.


Yet Another Transportation Misadventure

So we reluctantly packed our things and moved on. At noon we left for Chiang Rai and then planned to head to Chiang Mai where we would rent a car for the trek up Doi Chiang Dao. Unfortunately upon arrival at Chiang Rai we discovered that all of the buses to Chiang Mai for the next 3 hours were fully booked. We did not expect this. It is times like these when one begins to appreciate the overcrowded buses that never pass by a potential customer just because they ran out of seats. Everything has a good side. Laura tried asking if we could sit in the aisle, but her pleading was to no avail. So we whiled away the three hours doing absolutely nothing but worrying that we would not make it to Chiang Mai before all car rental agencies closed and then our plans really would be screwed.

Lucky for us, we did make it in time to rent a car. Not from the place we had expected to mind you. They were too expensive, so we went running down the street in search of a company that had yet to padlock their doors. We did find a shop that had closed almost 1.5 hours previously, but had left their door open a crack, which gave me the opportunity to barge in a request a vehicle. The clerk was kind enough to call the owner, who came to the store to supply us with the proper vehicle.

What should we do now? We wondered. It was getting late, but we wanted to be at the mountain in time for the prime birding hours of the early morning. We tried phoning a guesthouse at the base of the mountain, but the owner didn't seem to thrilled with staying up until midnight just for us, so we scrapped that plan. We tried to find a cheap guesthouse in Chiang Mai, but the neighborhood we were looking in shuts down early and so we were left wandering deserted side streets.

Finally we decided to head for the mountain and sleep in the car. We thought for sure that we would be able to find a nice hide-away to spend the remainder of the night. We did find a nice place, until Laura decided she REALLY had to go to the bathroom and proceeded to wander about looking for a place to relieve herself. This did NOT make the resident dogs happy and they began howling like banshees. This did NOT make Casey happy who thought that some angry Thai would come running after us because his dog woke him up. After some debate, we decided to hit the road once more in search of another quiet place to park. At the end of the road, on the grounds of the monastery where we were planning to bird in the morning we found just the right spot. It was quiet and there were no barking dogs to ruin the night calm. We tried to sleep until daybreak, when we got up to begin a day of bird searching.


Mountain View Birding
The day was great. We wandered around the temple and monastery for the morning looking at birds and watching the monks go to and from collecting alms. The monastery is set on the slopes of Doi Chiang Dao, nestled in between some gorgeous scenery. It was quite a hike to get up to the temple, but it was well worth the view. We ate lunch at a spot recommended to us by other birders. The woman spoke beautiful English and we chatted with her for a bit.

After lunch we putzed around looking at her bird books and watching her staff come back from the road with loads of small leafy branches. Apparently, it's cocoon season and this means delicious treat! We watched as her staff carefully picked green cocoons from the leaves, which they will sell in the market for a high price. We were even privileged enough to try a few of the critters that were fried to a crisp. They must be an awfully good source of protein, but frankly I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

In the afternoon we began the ascent up the mountain. It took us awhile to find the turn off, then we realized that the car engine was awfully hot when it shouldn't have been so we turned around in search of anti-freeze. But silly us, we forgot where we were and when we asked the shop they went to the back and brought out a bucket of dirty water and filled up the radiator. Worked well enough for us! So we proceeded up hill.

We had read up a lot about Doi Chiang Dao, so you can imagine our surprise when in the middle of a road we thought was straight there was a fork. No maps we ever read even hinted at a split in the road and we were highly confused. Not understanding Thai, we crossed our fingers and picked the road that had a large sign of a mountain.

About 20km into the journey, Casey begins to get a little worried. As we looked behind us to our right the peak of the mountain came into view. Why would we be heading AWAY from the mountain we were supposedly climbing? We wondered nervously. Just before we were about to cash it all in and return from whence we came the glorious checkpoint appeared before us like a shiny beacon. Aaaahhhh!!!! Apparently, one needs to climb up and away from the mountain before one can actually climb the mountain.

We wandered a bit further then stopped for a little birding action before spending the night at a substation at the foot of the summit trail. The people in charge of the camping area were nice and even offered us a room (which we declined). We spent the night in the car (surprisingly comfortable!).

We got up early to search for the elusive magnificent Mrs. Hume's Pheasant that habituates the area. We weren't lucky, or skilled enough (or both?) to find it, but we did discover a number of other wonderful bird eye candy. We moseyed along to the summit trail, which was a real treat. Up this high, the mountain is covered in pine trees and the air remains cool all day. Even in the heat of the noon day sun there was a gentle, cool breeze. This was probably one of the nicest places that we have been in the whole of Thailand. The cool, clean air and the unparalleled views and scenery plus the birds just made for a magical experience. The hike to the summit reportedly takes 5-7 hours and it looked like it got a bit hairy near the top, so we decided against trekking all the way up. The part of the trail we did hike was on a ridge and therefore we were not forced to huff and puff on a steep incline like I supposed.

In the afternoon we slowly made our way down the hill and back to Chiang Mai where we caught the night bus to Mae Hong Son.

Though we racked up the miles on this trip and it was a condensed version of what we would have liked to do, it was well worth it and a nice break from teaching. We also surpassed both of our expectations and successfully 100 birds during our four day trip. Laura's unparalleled spotting skills and Casey's astute identification abilities combined make for a great birding team. You know what this means. We are moving up to the upper levels of bird nerdom. This trip also gave us a chance to have a little quality time together outside of our houses and to get outdoors, something we always prefer.

Little Princes

Last week we set of to a rural village with some members of Casey's organization. We were there to partake in the ordination ceremony of approximately 40 boys. The though many boys throughout Thailand are ordinated as novices each year, the elaborate celebration that takes place before the ordination is unique to this area. The ceremonies of the town and the surrounding villages are very similar to the elaborate affairs held in Burma. The ceremony we attended lasted for 3 days. We've heard that in Burma they last for a whole week.

For the first two and a half days of the ceremony the boys are treated like kings. Their parents dress them up in magnificent customs of brillant colors. They wear a crown of neon fake flowers and their parents splash on more make-up than most teenage girls wear at home (and these are boys, remember). Many of the boys were painted like a canvas with Burmese powder. The boys were not allowed to walk anywhere but instead they were carried on the shoulders of their family members. They could not even feed themselves and I saw many mothers raising spoons to her child Prince like he was two years old. There were a lot of parades around the village and singing and dancing around the monastery. They must of had the time of their lives!

Casey's organization had paid for the ordination fees of 11 of the boys so they would be taken care of in the monastery. Many of these boys had come across the border to escape the situation in Burma.


Some Background Information
As I have recently found out, Burma has the highest rate of child soldiers of any country in the world. The Burmese government "recruits" soldiers, often by going to a village and demanding the village head to find them so many soldiers for their next tour. The government is still fighting a few minority rebel groups and even the ceasefire groups are known to actively recruit children into their armies. In the rural areas of Northern Burma, there is also a lot of drug abuse. Burma is second only to Afghanistan in the production of illicit opium and it's derivatives.

We interviewed three young boys for "Kids Around the World." This is a school program of the National Peace Corps association. The goal of this program is to help teachers bring international issues into the class room. The idea premise is that elementary school children around the world are interviewed in their native language. The questions are about what they do, what they like and how they live. There are also links on information for each country the children live in.

I am very excited about this project and asked Casey's organization to help. They were able to secure interviews for three of the children they assisted. We sat down with them all garbed up and asked away. Of course they were shy.

We later found out that two of the young boys who have been in Thailand for five years because their parents were afraid they'd become child soldiers. They came to live with their "uncle" but they have grown up in the village monastery instead. In the monastery, the boys are safe from the Thai authorities who randomly raid areas for illegal immigrants. If the children were to live with their uncle, chances are they could be sent back to Burma. But, because of some obscure Thai law, anyone who is ordained and living in a monastery is exempt from being deported. Thus, the ordination ceremony and thus the NGO's involvement to ensure the safety of these children. Sadly this is a common case.

Day 1
Casey attended the first day of the celebration. He said it was a smallist event, though he did manage to rack up a large number of pictures. Mostly it was just the locals parading about the children who will soon become monks.

Day 2
We arrived early in the morning. Casey's organization was kind enough to lend us some traditional clothing. Their Thai driver got a big kick out of the Pa-O from America and kept asking up to speak in Pa-O. Sadly after a month and a half here all I could respond was "Am Den (Let's eat)!" This made him chuckle, of course.


The parade was to honor the boys. Everyone in the parade dressed up to the nines. We were the only Pa-O, there were many in Burmese and Shan style longgyis (skirts) and many people from other tribes were dressed up just to watch the parade.





Everyone in the parade carried offerings for the monastery. I always love looking into the offering baskets, half of it never maeks sense to me: the small can of condensed milk next to the small can of coconut milk which is in front of individual packets of instant hot chocolate. All things to help create healthy young novices! Casey was the photographer while I marched away with the rest of the Pa-O women. The parade was at a hellishly slow pace and lasted at least an hour though we didn't travel for more than a kilometer (perhaps a slight exaggeration on my part, but not much). During this long procession, the boys were all carried on the backs of their loved ones while others kept the sun out of their eyes with gilden umbrellas. Gongs and drums beat out traditional Shan music as the sun rose higher in the sky.

After the procession we all headed inside the monastery to present our offerings. Many of the offerings were provided by the village council, who used the ordination fee to pay for donations and food for the festival. Everyone was invited to lunch and snack while listening to the chanting and dancing that still proceeded outside. The festivities dragged on as the day heated up and soon our companions were eager to rest.



The festivities carried on deep into the night. We were lucky enough to be staying across the street from the monastery and thus were continually awakened by the drumming and chanting over the loudspeaker and irregular intervals throughout the night.


Day 3

In the morning the boys were treated once again as royalty. This was a time of picture taking and merry making. After lunch the festivities dwindled as the ceremony began. This was a solemn time for the young boys and their parents. They boys ritually thanked their parents for all they have done for them. Many of the children and their loved ones were crying. This would ceremony was the last goodbye for many of the children who would not see their parents for weeks, months or even years. This is also a symbolic goodbye because after the children enter the monastery as monks they will be the children of the monastery and no longer the children of their parents. The parents then shaved the eyebrows of their children and then handed them their novice robes. Then monks and older novices helped the children into their robes. There was a lot of chanting and an older monk held a Buddhist service. Finally there was more picture taking and then the parents left the boys to learn about the Buddha.