Phong, our guide, who had been a monk at this Buddhist temple.
The temple music pagoda where they play drums and cymbals once a week, at 4am and 4pm, reflecting an important time in the lunar calendar. Click here for video.
December 28
Our guide, named Phong, had been a Buddhist monk for 8 years of his life, aged 12 to 20. He spent part of that time in a Buddhist wat, or temple, named Wat Xieng Thong, mostly renovating and painting the temple back into shape. He explained to us that Buddhist Monks in Laos are mostly made up of novices, who often agree to be a monk for survival reasons. Monks get free housing, food, and a solid education, including learning English. They can be a monk for as short or long a time as they please. And, they have over 200 rules when they become a full monk, but only 10 as a novice monk. But, they are a tough ten, including no interacting with girls, dancing or drinking beer. Our monk said that as a non-monk he can now have children, marry, and "dance and drink beer!"
His temple was glorious, with its many mosaics shining in the bright sun. The top temple pagoda included an urn of the king and his parents that was paraded on a float through town then the temple pagoda was built around it. Another temple had a buddha that was seen as very powerful but only taken out once a year when most of the city gathered to be near its special powers.
We ended the day by first fortifying ourselves with a nutella crepe then charging up a small mountain to another Buddhist temple and an outrageous sunset overlooking the Mekong river and the mountains surrounding Luang Prabang.
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