OneWaytoKathmandu

My Scholarship entry - The Novice Festival: Child to monk in Burma

MYANMAR | Thursday, 20 November 2014 | Views [296] | View Larger Image

Her eyes tell the story. The awakening fear of the unknown. Her head is adorned in jewels, and the photographer before her shoots flashes at her and her towering siblings. But she cannot relax. Feverishly she bows her head and dreams of the year before, running through rice paddies and chasing after the newborn goats. Passing marbles to her friends, shouting after trekking tourists and remembering nights sat in the shadow of her mothers warmth. It would not be the same, this summer. The next day, her head would be shaved and she would enter the nunnery for several months.

The sunrises over Kalaw, it's tin houses, dirt paths and aged golden Pagoda glimmering in the glow. The villages of the Shan hills awake with the rising light and the echo of the rooster. Today is a big day, the start of the summer months, and the beginning of the Novice Festival. Parents spear the boar for roast, begin to dry tea leaves, and dish up plates of soft sugary sweets. For them it's a day of celebration, but it's the children who fear this day the most. It marks the end of their childhood in some ways. For the summer, they are forced into the monastery, to learn the teachings and discipline of Burmese Buddhism.

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After the feasting, the child parading and buckets of tea drinking, sunset brings the villages to the local monastery. Built with local teak wood, it's brown façade is fading, but beautifully and elegantly. The inside creeks with every footstep of my heavy trekking boots. But the barefoot monks pass without a sound. As gentle as their faces, they follow me to an upstairs window. Below sees a parade of novices, local children in their best jewels, on hired horses, and surrounded by uncles and cousins playing sheep skin drums. The spectacle seems too brash for the simplicity of the Buddha's way, but it's only for a day. Tomorrow the children will learn serenity, and how to walk with silent feet through the teak monasteries.

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My Scholarship entry - The Novice Festival: Child to monk in Burma

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