Around 89% of Burmese are Buddhists and it is such a
fundamental part of their daily life, I felt it was worth a post on its own so
I’ve deliberately held most of my monk images back.
The country’s buildings are largely low rise and the golden
stupas dominating practically every skyline are striking reminders of the
enduring popularity of the religion, having been erected, enlarged, and
embellished for generations by local rulers and still to this day by local
communities.
Support for the monasteries is also a constant, around
500,000 young men are members of a monastic order and around 75,000 women are
nuns – a higher share of the population than in any other country. A greater proportion of income is also
donated to religious orders than anywhere else.
Where practicable, every Buddhist boy spends at least a few
weeks living as a monk in a monastery from the age of seven (the exceptions
being if the boy needs to work to support his family). Some who don’t go as a child/teenager or who
don’t stay the distance (Nylon our guide hated it and only lasted a week aged
13) aim to go back at some point in their lifetime and many undertake annual
retreats even for just a couple of days.
One of the most defining sights in this country is the long
lines of monks in their saffron or wine coloured robes collecting food in their
alms bowls. Monks have no money and just
a few possessions; their robes, sandals, umbrella and alms bowl so they are
reliant on the generosity of the community for everything else – plane/taxi/bus
rides, food etc are all freely given as the Burmese consider “merit making”
will improve their chances of better future lives by doing good deeds in the
present one.
It’s amazing how ones attitude to something changes so
quickly, when we were in Cambodia and Laos earlier this year I was thrilled to
see a monk simply standing still, now with so many everywhere I looked I then
wanted a monk “doing something” – a striking parallel to Nature photography
when the judges say “Oh it’s just another bird on a stick, anyone can take that”
which is totally wrong of course as birds are incredibly difficult to
photograph even when they’re posing for you.
Every pagoda we went into had many large glass collecting
boxes and if you visited at the end of the day these were generally stuffed
full of money and practically everyone gave offerings of flowers. The stupas are sometimes covered in gold and
some Buddha statues are seriously deformed by the amount of gold leaf that has
been stuck on them by the devotees (only men are allowed to do this)
It was striking to witness how important religion is to
the young people as well; time and time again we saw teenagers at the pagodas
doing their devotions. Apparently most
people aim to visit the pagoda twice a day, morning and evening.
So, some random images most of which are grab shots as generally it's not the done thing for monks to pose!
And my favourite of all, this lovely little boy from the orphanage
