MYANMAR | Thursday, 20 November 2014 | Views [374] | View Larger Image
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.
