A Day Filled with the Colour Orange

Jane and I decided to wake up at 5:30 a.m. one morning and begin our day of spiritual exploration. The first thing we wanted to see was the Buddhist Monk's on their walk. I was unaware that this would mean anything more than watching Monk's walking to the temple for their morning prayer. When we got up to the street we were instructed to buy a portion of stick rice and some fruit. We were given a mat to sit on, told to sit on our knees and put food in the Monk's silver bowls as they passed by. It was a short, interesting and incredibly foreign custom to take part in. I was unaware that we would be interacting with the Monk's and therefore felt awkward and unprepared by my lack of knowledge in the process. There were a couple of other tourists taking part but the street was primarily lined with older women who I am sure take part in the walk each and every morning.



The dedication these women have to their religion and this sacred, what I saw to be sacred, walk was very powerful. It was interestingly two sided. The Monk's role was to dedicate their life to prayer, prayer for themselves, but also prayer for their neighbours, their land and their community. In return, these women dedicate themselves to their own daily prayers in addition to making food and offerings to the Monk's each day.

It was a quiet and humbling process to have taken part in and unfortunately for me, it was too short to really register what was going on.

The Stupa up top of the hill that sits in the middle of Luang Prabang was beautiful. The walk up led you past many different Buddhist relics and ended at the top of the hill looking over the whole area.


At 5:30 p.m. we went to a Buddhist prayer at one of the temples. Jane and I have both spoken about our desire to go to a meditation but unfortunately there were none being held that week. Prior to the prayer session I was taking a walk through one of the temple grounds to find out the time of the prayers. I ended up speaking with a monk who was in the middle of studying his English. I spent a bit of time with him just trying to understand a bit more about the way they spend their days. The religion and customs are fascinating to me. Throughout their prayers, I had so many questions running through my head.


Here I come Wikipedia...but I don't think that will be enough. I am waiting for my time in Nepal and India to grasp a better understanding of the religion.