Saturday, August 11, 2007

The temple complex is of course teaming with devotees, pilgrims etc. but it also functions as a community center, with lots of people seeming to spend all day here. And of course there are monks, lots of monks. There's a school for monks here where the boys were all chanting prayers at very high speed. You may be wondering how you can tell Burmese monks from Thai ones? Well, the obvious difference is that Thais wear orange while the Burmese wear maroon. But Burmese monks also just get a crewcut, while Thais are completely shaved, including eyebrows. Theologically there is no difference, as both countries adhere to Theravada Buddhism rather than the Mahayana Buddhism of Japan, Korea, China and the Himalayan cultures.






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