Your Guitar Dreams Start here

Buddhist Monk Life a Rich Insight into Novice Monks Life.

Posted by:

brendon.mcaliece

On:

2022-07-11

Travel Blog Thailand

Buddhist, buddhist monk life, Thailand

A Buddhist monk life in a small village or a large city temple in Bangkok are similar in many ways. What is important are the services they all offer to their respective communities. They are respected by all, and treated with the most respect and reverence.

Remaining modest, free of the burden of personal possessions, monks generally don’t have very much in belongings. Owning a mobile is important these days, to be contactable but beyond that in modern day Thailand is very little.

A Personal Perspective.

What I offer in this post is my own experience only with two monks I have known personally for approaching ten years. We met and talked nearly daily in the village and although they have moved, still drop in when in the area.

When asked I would drive them to Chiang Rai on for meetings, education and shopping. On occasion we went to Mesai on the Thai/Burma (Myanmar) border. We visited other temples for meetings and taking visiting monks on a tour.

Mesai Border Post – Thai -Myanmar Border.

The monk had a friends birthday in Chiang Mai, we drove there and returned in the evening. Six hours driving but as always its a fun experience. It was always a pleasure helping them. Light hearted conversation was the order of the day on trips of any length. There were always one or two other old men who travelled with us. The banter was always fun.

The Obvious Question?

You may ask reasonably, are you Buddhist Brendon? The answer is no! I am defiantly not. In fact I’m Ashiest and have no time personally for religion at all. I respect people who wish to be religious, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If it makes you happy, that’s fantastic.

It’s just a concept I find no use for. I discussed religious ideas with my monk friends on occasion. We understood our own positions and respected them. It made no difference to the monks. They treat everyone on face value. I love this perspective on life.

Village Life – Buddhist Monk Life

So why do I care about my local village temple? Living in a small isolated village as I choose to do, it’s incredibly important to be part of the community I feel. To engage with families, helping carry chairs, set up tents for weddings, funerals and house warming parties is part of being part of the community. Riding on the back of trucks with my village neighbours picking up kitchen equipment etc. helps me to be part of the community. I am known and accepted as a villager by everyone.

Who Can be a Monk.

The Buddhist monk life is not for all, but all males become monks even if it’s for a few days. It’s a religious requirement for all Buddhist males. The understanding I have is if the sons don’t become ordained then parents won’t have an angel deliver them to heaven when they pass. That’s quite an incentive isn’t it. What families do who only have daughters is an obviously have a quandary. Maybe the husband having already been a monk is enough. I don’t know what happens if your guy.

Child Buddhist Monk Life

The most common time males become monks is when they are children. Children can become monks at any age with teens probably the most common. At this age becoming a monk for a few days isn’t to scary. They become what is called a “Nen” or novice monk.

It’s very common for novice monks (nen) to enter the temple in groups and stay for an allotted time together with friends. It just makes sense to have kids with friends to make time away from home less scary.

It’s Time to Be Novice Monk (Nen).

The process for becoming a Novice monk seems pretty straight forward. The family has a party (no drinking) and then walk the son to the temple with singing, music and drums. They are typically dressed in white clothes for their trip to the temple. This all happens on an auspicious day dictated by the Buddhist calendar.

There are variations on how the monk to be arrives at the temple. It can simply be walking, carried on a frame by family or even on a horse as above. Much depends on the families status and wealth how it all happens. Movie stars have been seen with double decker busses converted to hold bands and singers while throwing money to the crowd. (Tum Boon)

On arrival at the temple they are received by the monks and are washed by dumping cold water over them. This is a cleansing act before the novice monks line up and have their heads shaved. This is an exciting time for the family as well as likely an anxious .time for the new nova’s.

The family walks past behind the children cutting off small pieces of hair. They are always careful not to hurt the child obviously and great care is always taken. Once the hair is down to small clumps on the child’s head the monks use a razor and shave the remaining hair off. This includes the child’s eyebrows as well.

Bald Westerners Raise Eyebrows!

Westerners do not think much about shaving their heads when the inevitable is obvious. This supposed luxury to shave your head is not available Buddhists even when balding. They always keep what hair they have as only monks can be bald. This is why fully shaved men visiting Thailand are stared at often by Thai people.

Aussie Bald Friend.

There is a couple Aussie guys married to girls in the village. They are great guys and live in Australia with their wives. One is normally clean shaven, when he came to the village initially he got some stares from the villages.

I had quite a few villages ask me about why he had his head fully shaved. Explaining the cultural differences to Thai’s gets some raised eyebrows but they understood. They don’t always agree it’s a good thing, but they have to accept cultural differences as we do living here.

Novice Buddhist Monk – Full Time.

There are occasions where children enter the temple full time. These children may be orphans or the family may be to poor to look after them. Parents may separate and need both to work away from home with no family support for the child. Life as we know isn’t always simple or easy.

There are many reasons this happens and as harsh as it sounds the family can be confident the novice will have food to eat, a dry place to sleep and clothes to wear even if it’s monks robes.

The novice monks get an education through the temple sending them to a religious school. They get standard education with Thai, math’s etc as well as religion.

The Day Starts Early.

Temple life often starts early for monks and novice monks in full time temple life. Rising well before sunrise the monks wash and head off to meditation. They are taught meditation and religion from the beginning of the day.

This may be an hour or so before going out to receive alms (Bin Prapaht). Walking the streets receiving donations from anyone wishing too and in return offer prayers to them. Adult monks accompany any novice monks on their walks. Generally someone from the temple committee walks ahead hitting a gong offering some advance notice of their arrival. This gives villagers some notice and they scramble to get items ready.

Once they have walked and returned back to the temple they will eat and then go to school. They spend a full day at school and on returning may do further meditation or chores such as sweep and clean the temple grounds. Manual labor is part of being humble.

The novice monks are still kids and they do get time to be kids. Their village friends can visit them after school and they can play games together. Weekends also are time to be kids and enjoy life. It’s not a bad one.

Buddhist Monk Life – Leaving The Temple.

The novice monks can either stay and be ordained monks when they are old enough or just leave anytime. There is no contract or time period required to stay in the temple. There are advantages to staying such as a university degree. My monk friend went to university and I would sometimes drive him there which was a 80km round trip. The choice of subjects is probably limited to religious subjects I would expect.

Should I Stay or Go?

There are some very specific times when a choice has to be made on staying or leaving the Buddhist monk life. At age 21 all Thai males must go to the army draft. If they are monks and have been fully ordained, they can avoid the draft but there is a catch. They must serve ten years in the temple as a monk. To leave before means they get drafted right away is my understanding from my monk friend.

In life some decisions are forced upon monks when they transgress. Yes Monks are not perfect and some fall foul to temptation. Often we see these falls from grace all over the Thai news when a monk has found a girlfriend or boyfriend as the case may be. There have been some who have fallen into the world of drugs and also been removed.

These thankfully are not that common but it’s part of modern life. Locally I believe there was a monk in a nearby temple arrested for possession. It must have been a mistake or only a small transgression. I understand he has returned to the temple.

Author:

Brendon McAliece Lives in a small village near Chiang Rai with his wife of 37 years. He has lived and traveled to Thailand over the last nearly 40 years. He speaks fluent Thai and loves to share his love of Thailand and its people with others.

Buddhist Ceremonies in the Life of an Ordained Monk >