Alms Ceremony a Show for Tourists?

One of the often listed tourist attractions in Laos is the daily alms ceremony. In the morning, monks from various Buddhist temples walk around to collect alms.

According to the teaching of Buddhism, the alms are in the form of food. In Laos, it’s cooked plain glutinous rice. There are notices advising tourists to NOT offer money as part of the alms ceremony.

A man can choose to offer the alms in a standing or kneeling position but a woman must kneel. I don’t like this inequality but this is how the locals practice this tradition as is common in many other religions.

After the alms ceremony, the monks return to the temple, meditate, and perform daily chores before they prepare a meal with the alms.

Besides being a discipline and faith of the monks, the original intention of this ceremony is also for the general public to personally prepare the alms as a sign of devotion to Buddhism. The effort of preparing the alms from scratch is an important message of this ritual for the devotees while the message of acceptance is important to the monks.

The availability of pre-packed alms for sale by vendors draws criticism due to the economic nature of the transaction. As the pre-packed alms are mainly for the benefit of tourists who often participate in the ceremony for the novelty and not the belief in the religion.

I read articles on incidents of unscrupulous vendors who use stale or inappropriate ingredients to prepare the offerings in order to dispose their unsold or expired ingredients and/or to maximize profit.

There are also articles about ignorant tourists not showing courtesy and respect for the alms ceremony as the ceremony has become a show.

This is a blog post from a Western tourist who learned the do’s/don’ts and the meaning when she participated in the ceremony:

~ Giving Alms to the Monks in Luang Prabang, Laos

These are some interesting articles on the effect of tourism development in Luang Prabang:

~ Balancing Heritage and Development in Luang Prabang

~ Tourism Threatens Historic City Known As ‘Soul’ of Laos

Since most of us, as tourists, can’t personally prepare the alms or ensure the reliability and safety of the alms, I agree with most travel sites that we just quietly observe the ceremony from a distant. This also helps to not dilute the true meaning of the alms ceremony.

 

I took this at 5:30 a.m. as inconspicuously as possible by standing in the dark behind a fence and shrubs, while setting the camera without flash and without the image snapping sound effect.