Becoming A Monk (Part 1)

One of the temple buildings at Wat Chalong

I had the honour of being invited to the ceremony of one of my Thai colleagues for the investiture of his son to become a monk. My comments and actual observations are a general guide. Cerremonies and practices will vary from location to location. For the purposes of this writing, I will use the identification for the young man as "B', his father goes by the name "A" in real life.

In Thailand most boys go into the temple and live as a monk for a period of time in their lives. The duration of stay can be from a month or so. Some will return many times in their lives for short periods of time and others will remain there for the rest of their lives. The practice has many purposes, but two of them are for the boy to spend time in reflection and concentration on the Buddhist life principals, and secondly by participating it is a sign of respect for your parents, where your act assist them in a form of merit making. The merit making is for the boy, and family members, both living and dead. There is  a belief that you can make merit for those who have died.
This can happen at any stage of their lives, and many of the Thai men I know undertook this while they were still teenagers or young adults. And I have met some who over the age of thirty have yet to undertake it. For some the idea is that it is something you must do, so it is best to do so before all of life's complications such as family, work and careers are too established. In any event it is a very personal decision and one that one undertakes when they feel they are ready to forgo the usual nicieties of everyday life, such as television, three meals (or more) a day, deciding what hair style or colour to use or hopping on the motorbike to go see a movie. In this case today, "B" is about 17 years of age.

As with many things I have participated in here, forewarning is not a common trait, so to get an invitation 24 hours before an event is not unusual. And we are learning that this is how it goes. So with little more than an invite to go to Wat Chaong for 1:30 tomorrow, saw me headed to Wat Chalong. I had done some research on the internet and spoken to some Thai friends and found out that I had to dress respectfully (ie: no T-shirt or shorts), ad bring cash in an envelope, (amounts above 100 Baht are considered respectful) which you give to the family. The money is to offset the costs of such a ceremony and is presented to the family in a plain envelope, or in this case to "B", who in turn gives it to his family.

It was a beautiful sunny day, which was rare, give the past 10 days of torrential monsoon rains. I have also found out this improves the chances of getting a crowd. Most people here will not go out for an event if it is raining. You must understand that Wat Chalong is a massive site, with many buildings and temples. After a few phone calls, we were directed to the building playing the music. I arrived to a dining hall with probably in excess of 200 people sitting at tables and eating Thai style. That is to say that dishes are placed at the center of the table and people help themselves to whatever they want from the table centre. There were about 12 different dishes, as well as Thai sweets and fruit. Ice water and ice tea for refreshments, and a live band playing Thai folk songs. At the center of the table was a glass with paper napkins and white envelopes. The envelopes for you to put the cash into in case you did not bring your money in an envelope, and pass to the family and the new monk to be, as they made their way around the room to chat and greet each and every guest. The atmosphere can best be described from my perspective as if you were at a wedding reception in Canada (well except for the envelopes, but I had received wedding invitations in Canada that specifically asked for cash gifts). The food kept coming and the band kept playing, with some skits and comedy acts thrown in from time to time. Of the many guests there were perhaps about 30 of us non-Thai people there.

My research had said that they did the ceremony and then had a banquet, as monks eat only one meal a day and it is taken prior to noon. So I assumed the ceremony had concluded already and we had simply been invited to the "reception", except the monk to be was still in his regular pants and T-shirt, wearing a multi checked sash and sporting a full head of hair and eyebrows. As we non-Thais were seated together and had one Thai person with us, a woman, who had not been to such and event, we were all guessing about what was, had or would be happening. And the other thing we have learned here is that it would not be unusual if the event was taking place many hours later. This was a celebration and the Thai people like to have a good time, so being there for 6-9 hours would not be unusual.

After a good feast, I wandered the grounds of the temple and did some photography, with my newest acquisition, a macro/wide angle lens converter, adn noticed that adjacent to the food hall, there was some activity taking place in one of the smaller temples. Upon investigation, I saw the family of "B" with a group of monks and he was kneeling on the floor in front of his parents. I took this to mean that something significant was happening, as such I decided to enter the temple, removing my shoes, as you always do when you enter a temple.  I was not sure about photographs, during this event, but saw many people happily snapping away, so I joined in.

Dad look on his son as Grandmother makes her three cuttings of hair

"B" was kneeling and holding a bowl woven from pandamus leaves in front of him. His parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents were seated in a row of chairs and he knelt in front of each one and bowed his head, and they would then take  apair of scissors and cut three chunks of hair from his head and place it in the bowl. In some ceremonies, "B" would have also washed his parents feet as a sign of respect. Once he had passed the line, he was escorted outside to a chair near the dining area where the guests descended upon him and all took three hair cuttings and placed them in the bowl. At one point here were people all around him and all cutting at the same time. At the end of it, he posed for me. I noticed at that time that he had been shedding tears through the whole process.

Once the people had finished, a monk appeared with a man dressed all in white and wearing a large number of amulets. The monk produced a razor, which is sort of like the safety razor I recalled my dad using. The difference is that the safety flaps appear to not be there on this razor, and it is simply a metal plate that is screwed into the handle to hold a double edged razor blade in place. The assistant washed the head of "B" with some hand soap and then poured a small amount of water over the head, and the monk began to shave "B''s head. I had some concern as I noticed that "B" had a crescent moon type scar that crossed his scalp about 22cm long. But the monk, who must have lots of experience managed to shave him without producing any nicks or bleeding. Very quick and efficient. And then "B" had his head tilted back and both of his eyebrows were shaved off. This is to apparently one of the first steps to signify the renouncement of worldly possessions.

He was whisked away again by the man in white, and I by now had learned to follow behind, as there was surely something else going to happen. This time his father intercepted me and explained that "B" was going to get changed now. And so he disappeared into a back room with a few bags of garments. And emerged all dressed in white. He performed some prayers and had the gold head band placed on him. He returned to the dinig hall and made a visit to each of the guests there giving them a wai (Thai practice of placing the hands in a prayer type formation , a slight bow and raising the clasped hands to his head) and then began a walk to circle the temples three times, before joining a procession made up of his family.

The procession made it way to one of the main temple buildings, only to be intercepted by a security guard and directed to the main temple building.
The problem was that a number of tour vans and buses had just dropped off tourists who were all over the steps and had filled the temple space praying and taking photo's. The procession also drew attention and suddenly they began to swarm the procession to get photo's. We tried to stay together and keep moving towards the main temple, but became separated quickly. The half of the group I was in was suddenly cut off from the main procession and the throng of tourists filled the temple behind "B" and his family. It was impossible to get inside to see or hear the final ceremonies. I took my leave, having felt that while I may not have gotten to see and participate in the whole event, I had at least been able to see and experience something that I expect I would have never otherwise gotten a chance to do. I left the temple, as "B" was being dressed in his saffron robes, and probably wondering what this first night of living in the temple, without his creature comforts would be like. By 4:30 Am he would be out of bed and walking barefoot on the streets of Chalong to gather alms in the form of fruit, rice and whatever other food offerings the people wanted to give you. Returning to the temple where communally you would all share the offerings for your once daily meal.