Our Last Full Day in Laos

 It was a very early start today. We were out on the street in front of the hotel with our basket of sticky rice and tray of bananas ad pastries. There were long blocks of stools set up all over town. On our street people began filling the stools, and wrapping the scarf that was provided, a blue or red check around their shoulder and under one arm. Soon a saffron line of monks began to process by holding a covered metal bowl in one hand and a bag over the other shoulder. Rice scooped out of the basket with a plastic gloved hand went into the bowl. Other food stuffs went into the bag. Once the bag or bowl is filled, there are baskets in the street where the monks deposit the foods that overflow their bowls or bags. According to our hotel manager, the poor and/or homeless are then welcome to take these extra food stuffs.

One of the ethical questions to be considered is whether or not to attend and participate in Sai Bat. If you are a practicing Buddhist you understand the significance of the ceremony. One writer compares it to taking Holy Communion from a Catholic priest by a non-Catholic. My mother-in-law, a devout Catholic believed just the opposite. She told me once that everyone in church, believer or not should take communion. She said if you did not, it was like being at someone’s house for dinner and refusing to eat.

Dennis distributed the alms and I watched the people and the monks. At the end of the ceremony, an older man approached me. He told me, “I want to thank you for participating. We do this for everyone. It is for everyone in the world. Thank you.” All I could do was give him my thanks for taking the time to share that with me.

A final word from Dennis: (Note: after reading this you may want to take a moment to shake your head or roll your eyes.)

This morning we arose at 5:00 AM to “feed the monks.” Puzzled? I’ll try to explain with what little I know of this tradition. Monks live in Buddhist temples and are given a room. They have duties to perform but food is not provided so they rely on people’s generosity in the form of alms (money so they can buy food or food given directly). Each morning around 6:00 AM, people line the streets of Luang Prabang outside the temples to provide food for the monks. You can bring your own, I suppose but everyone we saw bought a prepaid basket containing cooked sticky rice and packaged fruit and pastry for about $5.00. Hundreds of small stools were lined upon the sidewalk for us to sit on with our alms displayed in front of us.

Then, a row of monks as young as maybe ten years old to those in their 60’s or 70’s came sown the sidewalk in front of us. They carried a kettle on one arm and a bag with a strap over their shoulders. They stop in front of each person and we were to put a small ball of rice in the kettle (we wear a surgical glove) and the fruit or pastry in the sack. Now picture this—there were probably 300 of us sitting on our stools with our alms. There may have been another 200 hundred or more observers on the street taking photos. Then about 100 monks started their collections. Stupid me started putting the rice and pastry into the kettle but I soon saw the error of my ways although the monks still smiled and nodded thanks. (I can only wonder what they thought. 🤔

The entire process took about 45 minutes. In conclusion, a cadre of personnel picked up the stools and rice baskets and everyone left to begin their day. We were also given a small silver  container of water (holy?) to pour over the roots of an old tree on the temple grounds. We were instructed to either make a wish or pray for peace or something like that. Cindy handled this part for us because she is so much more spiritual than me.

I mentioned to Cindy, “Man, they’ve got quite a business going there. Hundreds of people paying 5 bucks a pop every morning, 7 days a week.” She looked at me incredulously. “What’s the matter with you?! Didn’t you see the beauty and significance of the tradition? Do you always have to look at everything with that capitalistic mind set of yours? You know you can really be an a*#@+le at times.” 

I thought about that for a minute and responded—“Do you think it’s easy for me? Well, it’s not. I work very hard at that and kinda think I’m closing in on being a professional, soon!” I concluded, “A professional is someone who works hard and makes something difficult, look easy.” Yep, I’m getting better and better each day at becoming a perfect a*#@+le. Such is the way of our travels together. 😘