Novice monks in Myanmar: The story behind the shot

We ended up stopping for lunch first before heading up to the temple and when I say up, I mean up. Our lunch spot was at the bottom of the one giant hill where the temple was located. We discussed over lunch on how we were going to get up there…as riding our bikes did not seem like an enjoyable adventure. We discovered there were a number of guys on motorbikes at the bottom of this hill…after having a chat with them, they told us they hang out here to shuttle people up and down from the temple. PERFECT!

We got permission to leave our bicycles at the restaurant we just ate at so they don’t get stolen and off we go. We each jump on the back of a bike. As we were heading up the hill, all I could think of was OMG, I am so glad we didn’t ride our bikes! Watching people out of breath walking up the hill, while I had the wind in my hair was a euphoric moment for sure! Haha

Once at the top, we discovered that not only was there a temple there, but the other buildings were used to teach novice monks the Buddhist teachings. There were teenaged boys along with younger boys as well. We took our shoes off at the front and wandered around. We peeked into rooms to see what was going on. No one spoke English, which is like most people in Myanmar, except for one of the teachers, who gave us the insight of what this place was used for.

We landed in one room with the younger monks and they were engaged in a serious game I had not seen before. The game is something similar to pool, but on a much smaller scale and your “cue” is your flicking fingers. Funnily enough I ended up playing this same game in Nepal and it really does hurt the fingers! LOL  The older monk, who we assumed was their teacher, was having a nap on the chair while they played. The four of us girls got invited in to watch the game and the boys showed off their skills and silliness for us.

I used this time to document this unexpected chance to see how life was like learning to be a monk in Myanmar from a different point of view. To see kids were still allowed to be kids is very refreshing, when you know that every male in Myanmar is expected to serve as a monk twice in his life.

I loved spending the time with these novice monks and their smiles, mischievousness and antics. I will never forget one of these novice monks taking us to the temple. The temple was in a different area of the monastery, and we had to go outside to get to it. With our shoes on the other side of the monastery, we went in our bare feet. Thinking this wouldn’t be a problem, I could not keep up because of my baby soft feet! LOL 

The ground was full of rocks and I looked like Bambi trying to walk to the temple. I must have looked like I was in a lot of pain because one of the older monks, like a grandfather age, who was coming towards me stopped me and offered me his sandals to walk in. LOL, low point…I declined because I wasn’t going to take his shoes from him. I finally reached the others and got the shortened version of the tour, which was just a lot of pointing anyways since he didn’t speak English.