Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Burma -- Social life and customs
Being no priest, he has few duties to others to perform; he is not
called upon to interfere in the business of others. He does not visit
the sick; he has no concern with births and marriages and deaths. On
Sunday, and on certain other occasions, he may read the laws to the
people, that is all. Of this I will speak in another chapter. It does
not amount to a great demand upon his time. He is also the schoolmaster
of the village, but this is aside entirely from his sacred profession.
Certain duties he has, however. Every morning as the earliest sunlight
comes upon the monastery spires, when the birds are still calling to the
day, and the cool freshness of the morning still lies along the
highways, you will see from every monastery the little procession come
forth. First, perhaps, there will be two schoolboys with a gong slung on
a bamboo between them, which they strike now and then. And behind them,
in their yellow robes, their faces cast upon the ground, and the
begging-bowls in their hands, follow the monks. Very slowly they pass
along the streets, amid the girls hurrying to their stalls in the bazaar
with baskets of fruit upon their heads, the housewives out to buy their
day's requirements, the workman going to his work, the children running
and laughing and falling in the dust. Everyone makes room for them as
they go in slow and solemn procession, and from this house and that
come forth women and children with a little rice that they have risen
before daylight to cook, a little curry, a little fruit, to put into the
bowls. Never is there any money given: a monk may not touch money, and
his wants are very few. Presents of books, and so on, are made at other
times; but in the morning only food is given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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