Attending a Monks Ordination and visiting the monkey village.

This week we were extremely  privileged to be invited to an ordination procedure of our friend's cousin in becoming a Monk, which is a huge deal for the family and to celebrate they throw a big party with all family members and friends invited, as well as the local ordained monks to preform the ceremony. The ordination procedure for Buddhist monks, known, as the 'Going forth', begins with the applicant's formal request (Pabbajja) to a senior monk or bhikkhu for the novice (samanera) ordination.

On receiving permission, the applicant prepares for the ceremony by acquiring a complete set of robes and getting the help of the monks in the monastery to shave his head.The applicant then makes a formal request for the novice ordination. The senior monk acquiescing administers the Three Refuges and the Ten Precepts or training rules. 

The rules to be accepted by the applicant are:

The Ten Precepts:

1. I undertake to abstain from harming or taking life.

2. I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given.

3. I undertake to abstain from any sexual contact.

4. I undertake to abstain from false speech.

5. I undertake to abstain from the use of intoxicants.

6. I undertake to abstain from taking food after midday.

7. I undertake to abstain from dancing, singing, music or any kind of entertainment.

8. I undertake to abstain from the use of garlands, perfumes, unguents and adornments.

9. I undertake to abstain from using luxurious seats.

10. I undertake to abstain from accepting and holding money.

The first part of the ceremony involves the man's head and eyebrows being shaved off. After this, he is dressed in a white robe and is then taken to the temple, carried on a few of his close friend's shoulders, with his family and friends following. Once at the temple, followed by family and friends, he will walk around the temple three times with friends and family carrying offerings for the temple monks.

The whole ceremony lasts a full day and after food and praying the the applicant has his head shaved and then all the family crawl on their knees on the alter up to the monk to tie a blessed bracelet on the monks wrist to show respect. 
We were asked to be a part of this which was an amazing experience as this is not something you get to do by following the guide books or going to the touristy areas. This was an invitation from a good friend of ours (Rainny) and her parents and it was amazing to see this side of Thailand.

When we first arrived we greeted all her family and were shown to a table in the garden where they had large tents set up and plenty of fans directly facing the tables as it was close to 40 degrees and the heat was close to unbearable.

We had only been sitting for maybe 1 minute when out of nowhere, 5 members of her family were walking from the house to our table placing plate after plate of food in front of us.
The three of us sat at the table with Rainny and her sister and we smiled graciously as the table surface was slowly disappearing with the insane amount of food being put in front of us. And then as soon as a plate was cleared by us another one magically appeared in its place. Members of her family would approach us to greet us using their arsenal of English phrases they knew and we would attempt some Thai in return.

 Interesting fact we found out, is that most men in Thailand will eventually become monks. Not for life like priests or monks in western culture. Being a monk in Thailand can be as short as a week, month or as long as the rest of the mans life. Some businesses even offer unpaid leave to allow men to do this process

Once their loved one is officially a monk, one by one or in groups, members of his family and friends will sit in front of him to have their photos taken with the new monk. This will continue until every one has had their photos taken. Everyone except the monk is allowed to smile for the photos too.

Once the ceremony was over it is tradition for the family to do a lap of the town/village singing and dancing as they go (except for the monk). During the day we jumped back in the car and drove 5 minutes down the road to the Monkey village, which is pretty self explanatory but I (Stephen) was hoping it would be a village run entirely by monkeys - not too much to ask for right?. So all the taxi drivers, shop assistants and police would be just monkeys ... possibly in tuxedos... Unfortunately, that was not the case but it was a pretty crazy experience none the less. 

We drove through the entrance and immediately we're surround by easily 100's of small monkeys and some not so small. They seemed tame but a few would come close to us, teeth bared and fully jacked, muscle wise. The odd monkey would retract their lips and cheeks, to show their very scary shark like teeth, if you got too close.  

Rainny jumped into the river for a swim and I attempted to communicate with the monkeys and offered them food. The first attempt was not well planned as I approached a large monkey and offered it food from my hand, which I was not carrying at the time but was simulating to get him close enough for a sneaky up close pic. But once he seen I had no food for him he got pretty aggressive, started swiping the ground and jumped forward to take a swipe at my legs. 
We did manage to get some food eventually and we got some nice up close and personal moments with the monkeys which was very cool to just sit there and watch as they stroll a couple of feet from you doing all manner of unusual things. 

I also came to realise some of them were pure evil, as one monkey chased another out onto a branch over the river and proceeded to shake the branch with all his might to make the other drop, jumping and laughing as he did. 

We made our journey through and came to a large market they had at the exit, which was also over run by these monkeys but also a ridiculous amount of rubbish (garbage for my American friends) and we don't know if it's from the people at the market or if it's all the plunder that's been stolen by the monkeys and brought back by them to make their pile, as they are happy to eat absolutely anything that's available to them.

On the drive home we got a bit of shock as we were overtaken by.. well I don't actually know how to describe it so have a look at the pic. We got out to get a closer look by flagging him over to find out he was selling stickers and decals and only had a small slot at the front to see out of. Did we mention we were driving on the highway and this thing was doing easily 70-80 mph? 

But hey it's Thailand, where road safety isn't a priority. We have seen many insane things on the road, from sugar cane trucks stacked 3 times the height of the front cab and swaying from side to side as it goes, to pickups with 40 cages filled with live pigs squealing down the highway. But we made it home safe after the long day.



In a few weeks it's Songkran, the biggest water fight party in the world and it goes on for 3-6 days here, so we will have to get water proof everything, if we want to take pics.

Here is a Songkran video from 2 years ago and even the cops aren't safe. I seen videos were elephants walk the street spraying people from buckets..cant wait :-)