It is not uncommon to see a Buddhist Monk walking on the edge of a road in Thailand, but is is unusual to see 1,129 of them walking 458.55 km in 28 days. I was impressed with some of these facts: There were 1,129 monks. They were walking 458.55 km in 28 days. They were doing this barefoot. They were walking in the hot tropical sun with no hats. They rested every seventh day. While all the above
The answer to the questions about Thai Buddhist Monks, and what they eat, will vary depending on who you ask, and what country you are in when you ask. In Thailand, there are may customs and guidelines but these vary for each individual temple or monastery. In this article I will not attempt to go into detail of all the various traditions but instead I will concentrate primarily on my own experiences. This is my experience after walking and eating
The word Pindapata is one of those many words that suffer when translated from Thai to English. Words like alms gathering, alms round, alms giving, Buddha Bowl, begging bowl, baht, baat, bat pata etc are almost impossible to accurately translate from Thai to English both in spelling and pronunciation, let alone meaning. One of the major issues is that the Thai Alphabet has 44 consonants, 15 vowel symbols that combine into at least 28 vowel forms, and four tone
For the last few weeks I have been walking with a Buddhist Monk, or more correctly several Forrest Monks of the Theravada Buddhist monasticism. Thist has proved to be a much more interesting experience than I first anticipated. There are enough experiences to cover several blog posts. Perhaps I should state at this point that although raised a Christian, I now class myself as agnostic. I could never truly become a believer in Buddhism, but I will admit,