LUANG PRABANG, LAOS – If you’ve spent any time living or traveling around Southeast Asia, you’ve no doubt seen them. With their shaved heads and brilliant orange robes, they always stand out from the crowd.
I’m talking, of course, about the Buddhist monks in their colorful saffron robes.
You’ll often see them out and about, walking individually or in groups as they go about their daily activities around town. We’ve seen monks talking on cell phones, earbuds tucked into their ears, riding side saddle on the back of a motorbike or sitting in a tuk-tuk or on a bus.
As a photographer, I’m drawn to their colorful appearance. The striking color of their robes makes for wonderful photo ops. I can’t help myself wanting to whip out my camera and start snapping away every time I see a monk walking along the street.
Most of the time I’ve learned to restrain myself; I don’t just shove my camera into their face and start clicking.
Sometimes I’m a little sneaky
I always try to be respectful and discreet, but sometimes I’m a little sneaky.
When I see a monk coming down the street, I’ll focus my lens on a nearby temple or other interesting backdrop and wait until the monk walks into the scene. Snap, snap! Image captured, discretion preserved.
Our recent trip to Laos gifted me with a multitude of monk photo ops.
In Luang Prabang, monks from the dozens of temples located in the UNESCO Heritage town stream out of their monasteries each morning at dawn to participate in a daily “alms-giving” ritual.
Buddhist devotees, along with numerous groups of tourists, line the street to donate food to the monks. Participants kneel or sit on small stools and dish up a portion of sticky rice to each of the monks as they walk by. The monks carry a drum-like container on a shoulder strap to receive the food donations.
The ritual dates to a time when the monks really were dependent on the kindness of their followers for their daily sustenance, though it now seems to be mainly a spectacle for the benefit of the tourists (and my fellow photographers).
There are a few basic rules
Signs are posted along the way instructing tourists about proper behavior during the ritual:
Be silent and respectful. Dress properly. Keep your distance. No flash photography.
Of course, there are the inevitable outliers who disregard the requests for courtesy and proceed to shove their cameras in front of the monks and follow them down the street, bright camera flashes punctuating the early morning scene.
If you come for a visit, please don’t be that person.
Our time in Luang Prabang also allowed us a small glimpse into the monks’ daily lives. In addition to performing common daily chores like sweeping the temple compound, bathing, hanging laundry out to dry, or getting a haircut, we saw clusters of young novice monks laughing and talking as they constructed colorful paper lanterns to decorate the temple grounds for an upcoming festival.
Vientiane offered a new round of photo ops
In Vientiane, we discovered half a dozen Buddhist temples within a few blocks of our hotel. I was thrilled to be gifted a new round of photo ops. Click, click, click!
I’m not a student of Buddhism, but my understanding is that all Buddhist men are expected to spend some time living as a monk. They can devote themselves to the practice for a week, a month or a lifetime. It’s all up to the individual devotee.
While the orange robe certainly sets them apart, we’ve always found the monks to be approachable and friendly, and sometimes quite willing to talk. They’re often just as curious about us as we are about them.
After all, they might be a student or businessman… just a regular person taking a break from their normal daily life to do a short stint at the monastery.
Monks for a day
While sightseeing outside Xieng Khouang we met a British man visiting the country with his Laotian wife and son. He had just spent one day as a monk to participate in his mother-in-law’s funeral ritual. He and his 13-year-old son (who had never been out of the U.K.) shaved their heads and donned the saffron robes to honor their mother-in-law/grandmother during the ceremony.
Enjoy the video!
Check out our latest video, featuring scenes from the daily lives of Laotian monks witnessed during our recent trip to Luang Prabang and Vientiane, Laos.