2.3. Life of a Buddhist Monk in Thailand

Now we come to the daily life of a Buddhist monks in Thailand. Every morning at dawn, about four o’clock, a bell of the wat is sounded at interwals. This is to arouse monks from their sleep and also to awake villagers to prepare food for the monks on their morning visit for alms. The main food of the Thai is rice, and it requires boiling for at least half an hour before it can be taken as food. No rice left over from the last meal is suitable to present the monks as an act of merit. The young monk after rising out of bed robes himself in the customary way. Within a wat compound monks will robe themselves with their right shoulders bare, but with both shoulders covered when they leave the wat. The young monk will recite such appropriate portions of the Buddhist scriptures as he at that time has been able to commit to memory. This is how a monk learn by heart gradually a fair portion of the sacred text, by practicing every morning. Such a recitation as chanted by a chapter of monks in ritual and ceremony is not prayer in a strict sense of the word. Logically there is no prayer in Buddhism, but in popular practice there is, of course, a prayer of the Lord Buddha or to unseen beings. The young monk, after a short recitation of the next, goes out on his morning round of alms gathering. In the village, monks of the same wat go for alms in single file with the abbot at the head and the most recently ordained monk at the end of the line. In Bangkok or in large towns such a practice is now inconvenient because of traffic; there for each monk goes by himself, although when receiving alms monks line up in a queue. If a monk, owing to sickness or other adverse circumstances, is unable to go out for his usual morning alms, he is allowed by custom to send his “monastery boy” to represent him.

The newly ordained monk, after partaking of his forenoon meal, ill proceed to the abbot’s quarters to receive instructions and training in religious matters. It will take him many afternoon or sometimes a month or two to finish the course of instruction and training for newly ordained monks. He has to learn by heart certain formulas and texts in Pali as required of monks^[1]. This is relatively easy for a literate monk for he can learn by heart from the book, but not so with an illiterate monk. In the old days most of the monks, not only of the village folk but also of the people in town, were illiterate. In such a case the monk had to learn the texts and formulas by heart orally either from the abbot or from his deputy.

As to a monk who has been in the monkhood for a number of years, or in the Pali idiom for a number of ‘Vassa’ or rains, he has times at his own disposal for he no longer attends instruction from the abbot. He may take an afternoon nap to compensate for his early rising. In a village wat all comparatively silent in the afternoon. A layman will rarely pay a visit to any monk unnecessarily in the first hours of afternoon, for he is aware that probably the monk in taking his siesta. In Thailand there is a certain set of common words in the vocabulary as used in connection with monks. For instance, to sleep for monks is not ‘norn’, the ordinary term in the language, but ‘cham wad’, to partake of food is not ‘kin’ but ‘chan’; to take a bath is not ‘ab nam’ but ‘song nam’, etc.

A monk, if he does not have his afternoon nap, may choose to pursue his own studies or go out on certain personal business or follow a special course of study elsewhere not available in his wat.

Some monk after having been a number of years in the monkhood, leave the brotherhood to lead a layman’s life. Whatever knowledge a monk has gained during his monkhood will be turned into useful occupation. If, for instance, he has learned something of a certain craft, he will turn to it as a profession if the village he resides in is successful and recognized artisan or artist, there will be one or two young men apprenticed to him. A young man in apprenticeship, if he comes from another village, will stay with the masterartist, with free board and lodging, as one of the members of the family. He learns his art and trade while at the same time serving his master in all domestic matters. If he has attained sufficient skill in his art, the master-artist will put him to some easy and odd job ordened by someone. Any fee received will be apportioned to the young pupil as his share. After staying for some time as an apprentice an intimate of the family, he may marry a daughter of his master or one of the master’s female relatives. He now becomes one of the members of the family.

As time passed there would arise in that vicinity a village of artists most of whose inhabitants have a connection somehow or other be blood or marriage with the master artist. Such a village usually bears trace of the name of the inhabitants’s profession–for instance, as in names of districts in Bankok, Ban Mo or the Potter’s Village, Ban Law or the Image Caster Village. The latter still exists as a place where the casting of bronze Buddha images is carried on as a profession by many families in the district.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Suksamran Somboon, Political Buddhism in Southeast Asia, p. 18.