Luang Prabang, Laos: Giving Alms to Monks and the Locals Receive in Return

December 29, 2010

At 5:45 am, I biked down to the center of Luang Prabang for the giving of alms to the Buddhist monks. The monks get fed by the locals in the early morning as part of a giving of alms ritual where locals give rice and more into the silver bowls the monks line up and hold out for alms. At lunch, local women bring food to the temple for the monks. Then, the monks are not allowed to eat the rest of the day, after noon. Our guide, the former monk, explained that he and the other novice monks always knew when a novice had snuck food, after the noon hour, because he went to the bathroom more frequently than the others in the evening. Sounds like they kept a close eye on the bathroom for sport and out of competitive hunger.

The giving of alms is quite a sight at 6:30am. It's actually become quite a tourist event too, with tourists jostling for position for the best camera shot, to the point that the government has signs up in town and the airport telling tourists how to be respectful at the giving of alms. I hesitated about giving alms, feeling like a fraud somehow, and decided to go for it. I was not alone in being a fraud. It's a business with lots of tourists next to me, with someone selling rice, letting me borrow a rice basket, and setting me up with a mat in line with the other tourists (where were the locals???) to give alms.

Then, over 200 monks walked down single-file holding out their silver urns for us to put the rice in. They made no eye contact. I stuck my hand in my rice and was immediately burnt by its steam heat. My fingers still hurt as I type now. So, I practically threw handfuls in as quickly as I could into each of their urns. In minutes, I finished my rice basket, looking to my left and seeing my more knowledgeable neighbor (who'd also coached me to take off my shoes) having only put little, dainty balls of rice into each monk's urn. She had loads of rice left.

I sat awkwardly with an empty basket, with each monk looking at my basket and quickly hurrying by. I felt like I wore a t-shirt named "Buddhist Tourist Fraud" and then embraced my role and took tons of photos and videos in position.

When the line passed me by, which took some time, I walked over to the market looking for the famous, bitter, condensed milk-filled Laos Kafe (coffee), and on my way I found the REAL local alms giving. Click here to see the locals giving alms and turns out they receive a set of chanting prayers in return. And, the locals drips little bottles of liquid onto the street as they bend in prayer in front of the chanting monks.

Ken joked that the official alms giving on main street is just a distracting ruse for tourist to allow the locals to give alms around the corner, in peace, to the sounds of heartfelt monk chanting.