The weekend before last Ann and I went to Wat Buddharangsee in Annandale for the end of Buddhist Lent ceremony(phansa). I had not heard of Lent outside of the Christian context so was surprised when Ann described it to me. In essence, it means that monks remain in their temples for the entirety of the wet season, this being very wet indeed in Thailand. There are practical as well as religious purposes for phansa, such as impassable roads. Some lay people choose this period to "give up" something for the duration, such as not eating meat, smoking or drinking alcohol, not unlike practises found in the Christian tradition.

At the conclusion there is a celebration at the temple in which lay people bring gifts and new robes for the long-cloistered monks, and this is what I suspect was happening when we attended the Wat that day. In a processional, monks file past the laiety and are given food and drink, amongst other things. Ann and I were preparing for this very moment in the photos below.




Incidentally, this is the 1,000th post for Tatami Twist. That is not a lot over 13 years, but still worth marking, I think.