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February 18, 2007
The Monks and the Pagoda (Katy)
Yestday afternoon we went to visit some Buddist Monks at their pagoda. They used to attend the English classes of Natasha, who is part of SCC here in Siem Reap.
David, one of the monks, showed us around. We were taken into a large meeting room covered in paintings, The colours were amazing. They ranged from bright pink to orange to bright blue and just about every shade in between. The pictures told the story of Bhudda finding enlightenment.
Next we walked around the whole area. It's a self sufficient community with a school and plenty of housing. We even met a coffin maker.
Unfortunately, as with most of Cambodia there was rubbish eveywhere. In the country's huge list of priorities, cleaning up rubbish is fairly low.
We sat down and chatted to some of the monks. Females aren't allowed to touch monks so you can't get too close but they were really friendly. Many young boys become monks in Cambodia but most of them don't serve for life. They serve for 10 years or so, get a education and then leave. Secour, one of the monks we spoke to had his whole life planned out. He was to be a monk for another four years, then leave and become a tour guide and get married. He wanted two children, a girl first then a boy and then he wanted to become a teacher. It sounded quite strange, all of this from a monk in his full orange robes.
Over all the impression I got was that these were just normal young men. They weren't allowed some of the things that most young men are, like alcohol and they are only allowed to eat in the morning, but really they were like any other men. They had a makeshift gym behind one of the houses with concrete weights so they could keep in shape....!!
Posted by admins at February 18, 2007 8:28 AM