Thailand is known by many as ‘The Land of Yellow Robes’, due to the sea of yellow-clad Buddhist monks who walk its streets. For centuries, Buddhism has upheld its place in Thailand and enriched the way of life of its people. According to the 1960 census, the population of Thailand numbers 25,519,965, and of this number 94% are Buddhist. It is no surprise therefore, that when I arrived at the backpacker capital, eighteen, fresh faced and ready to party, I was confronted with an unexpected insight into a spiritual way of living – and yes, it was definitely unexpected. As part of a group of twenty travellers, following an itinerary arranged through the organisation Real Gap, we were expecting what any typical young traveller to Thailand expects: Khao San road, Singha beer and full moon parties.
Instead, we found ourselves transported 130km west of Bangkok, just outside of the town of Kanchanaburi. Here, we were abruptly dropped off in (what looked like) the middle of nowhere. Our tour operator hastily informed us that we were to stay with a community of monks for a night to begin our month long tour.
The monks made it clear they wanted to show us what a typical day was like for them. Firstly, we had to assist with the daily chore of cleaning. While most of us groaned at this, each of us soon had a rake and immersed ourselves in the task. This was soon followed by a tour of the grounds and the monks' individual homes. Each home is essentially a small wooden hut that would only fit one grown man to sleep in with no furniture, just a bare floor. While their simplicity shocked us, the washing (mainly orange robes) draped along the roofs highlighted how they were indeed, ‘homes’ to the monks.To be brutally honest, as a group of young people, mostly straight out of sixth form, the dishevelled buildings, eerie silence and the multitude of stray dogs filled us with apprehension. It was certainly a long way from our ‘backpacker dream’. After being shown to our rooms (bare cells with concrete floors) and given our attire for the day (white cotton pyjamas), we were introduced to the four monks with whom we were to share this experience. Following the hysterics brought on by seeing our beds for the night and our very unflattering uniforms; meeting these four men brought a little light to the situation. Their soft manner and way of addressing you without looking directly at you, created a sense of both calm and intrigue amongst the group. We could not help but stare at them, which we later found out was extremely disrespectful in Buddhist culture.
The rest of the day consisted of ‘spiritual’ activity. We were taught to chant, all walking in a circle and later, finally shown how to actually meditate. Although most of us giggled at first, the monks were unsurprisingly patient, and an hour in I finally began to find myself in a state of relaxation (that is, until a small lizard crawled up my back). We went to our concrete beds that night after a small dinner of rice and vegetables, which the monks watched us eat (their faith dictates that they do not eat past noon), accompaned by the terrifying sounds of stray dogs. Despite having what was certainly the worst sleep I have ever had, I was quite glad for it, as the day had provided me with a lot to think about.
The following morning, we were awake at 5am for the morning chants and then accompanied the monks on a walk around the nearby village, where locals handed them food. For most of us this was the highlight of our stay. Watching local villagers gracefully sharing their food with the monks was a very special moment. We were then touched to find the monks giving it straight to us to have for our breakfast!
By the time it was our moment to leave, we found ourselves taking off our white pyjamas, a little saddened to be going. We had found friendship in these four gentle monks and were willing to sleep (or not sleep) on concrete floors if it meant we could stay an extra day. While we didn’t leave as entirely new people, it certainly changed many of us in a small way, and was an experience that would stay with us. Our rash and hedonistic post-school selves had learned that the sense of community, respect and self-discipline which Buddhism teaches are important values – and I’m glad I was given the opportunity to realise this at the age of eighteen.
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