Monks at play

LittleLew

Monks at play

Young monks are just young men - with the same interests.
Taken in Nong Khiauw, northeastern province of Thailand.

Camera Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D200
Image Date: 2007:02:09 01:56:30
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 32.0mm (35mm equivalent: 48mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO equiv: 200
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
Comment: (C)L Lorton#p

saurora

That's funny...I love it! I wonder how it would look in black and white?

heatherfeather

I guess boys are boys and like the same things wheather they are monks or not! Great catch!

I just saw some monks at a Christmas craft fair in Anchorage, Alaska... They stood out a bit. : ) Wished I had my camera at the time!

ShepsMom

Excellent shot, and lovely processing as well.

schmoo

I love the juxtaposition in this shot! Also that one of the cars is as orange as their robes

Seeing things like this (and their fashionable sandals) always makes me wonder more about their lifestyle. You always tend to think of monks as completely segregated from society but obviously that stereotype is a little off, eh?

Thanks for sharing!

LittleLew

schmoo wrote:

Seeing things like this (and their fashionable sandals) always makes me wonder more about their lifestyle. You always tend to think of monks as completely segregated from society but obviously that stereotype is a little off, eh?

Buddhist men, at least in SEA, are typically supposed to serve two periods as monks during their lives; one period when they are young men and one when the responsibilities of family life are over. These periods are, from what I understand, supposed to be around 3 months.

Since young monks attend school, often poor families will send their sons off for longer peiods of time to get them the opportunity of education. Additionally, misbehaving boys are given a 'stretch' to teach them a little discipline.

Older men use their time to reflect on their life. 'Career' monks have a 'calling' similar to a religious vocation in the Western world; I must admit I respect theirs more because it is based less on belief in a mythology than on a belief in a system of ideals.

Monks nominally take a vow of poverty, celibacy and abstinence from earthly pleasures, typically eating only two meals a day. In early mornings one can see rows of monks leaving their monasteries to go out with their begging bowls to beg for food in the market place. Anyone giving to a monk gains merit.

During the recent uprising in Burma, you could see monks holding their begging bowls, upended, above their heads, saying symbolically that they would not take anything from the government and thus denying them, the government, merit.

This picture below was of a surprisingly atypical-in-appearance monk. According to one monk I talked with in Thailand (interestingly he was an ex-semi-gangster from NJ) , different 'orders' of monks have different reputations for stringency and behavior.

I must admit that, except for giving up photography, becoming a Buddhist monk really appeals to me.