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Monks were on the same category as unicorns for me, I see pretty photos of them everywhere yet I know so little about them. Since it was my first time to see monks in the flesh (and in the robe) I took every chance I got to snap a photo of them. It surprised me that some of them were smoking cigarettes and using DSLRs since I’ve always assumed that they’re supposed to live a life of goodness and poverty or something. From what I learned from talking to people in Thailand and Cambodia (and from Googling ‘how do Buddhist monks live’) here are my three wow-I-learned-something-new-about-monks:
1. Monks only eat twice a day. Their food comes from whatever is given to them by the community.
2. The younger monks in Cambodia are usually orphans, when I asked what’s the minimum age for being a monk, our tour guide told me that at the very least they should be big enough to carry about two kilos worth of food.
3. Smoking is not considered a sin for monks; however, the Cambodian government discourages people from giving cigarettes to the monks.
Whoops. Did I just interrupt a moment? (I kid, I kid.)
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.. were you able to visit the marble tower in bkk? there are a lot of monks there too, but i never took paparazzi shots of them like you, hehe.
Hindi eh, mas madami akong nakita sa BKK na monks na nasa streets kesa sa Cambodia na mostly sa temples ko sila nakita.
i so agree on the monks and unicorns connection.
I wonder when I’ll get to see an actual unicorn though.
idk, when rhinos mate with horses maybe. i love the orange of these monks. it makes them pop out!
Keri nila ang mag-orange! Not a lot of people can do that.
that’s true. but i bet lj can rock this better.
infer, may cute din pala hihi
Sino sa kanila ‘te? Talas ng mata mo ha. Ahihihiback.
I never seen so many monks in a single post, hahaha! But this is really good.
Monks smoke? Cool!
Yay! Unicorns! Hahaha.
Sorry, but what do they wear underneath all those bolts of cloth? LOL.
Uhm more cloth? I wasn’t able to find out eh but finding out what’s underneath their robes sounds dirty. Hahaha.
Well, you see Mormons have these weird undergarments and they can’t wear any other kind because of unspecified reasons. Baka may ganun din sila. Kulay orange din. LOL.
Ditto on the unicorn comparison. I think monks are so cool to take photographs of because they really stand out – orange robes and bald heads.
Natuwa ako sa mga pics mo and my favorite is the one with the smoking monk.
The smoking monk is everyone’s favorite.
why are monks bald? and i think one of your monks there looks like a younger Dalai Lama…
Feeling ko slightly magkakamukha silang lahat dahil kalbo sila? Hahaha. And according to Google, “Buddhist monks always completely shave their head and beard, showing their commitment to the Holy Life (Brahmacariya) of one gone forth into the homeless life.”
Whoa! To be holy is to be a baldy.
They smoke??? Also I thought they pray/meditate all day. The photo of a monk taking tourist photos made me laugh haha
Sana makakita din ako ng mga monks
Nakakatuwa nga to observe monks in their natural habitat. Hee hee. Nabasag yung mental image ko sa kanila na pray at meditate buong araw lang ang ginagawa.
I remember a news or a fb post showing monks smoking and drinking. Parang nasa kanto lang.
A monk drinking? That I’d like to see!