When Donating Became an Culture

My local team mate said, Myanmar is massively a nation of donation.

Because of deep-rooted faith in Buddhism, sacrificing and offering to Buddhas are literally a virtue; or rather put it this way, it's deemed as national culture. The general public donate to the monks and ministries food, water, and even money in their bowl as to support their cultivation or the temple mantainence.

So today, besides the normal monks in burgundy ropes, today as the moon-eclipse (or maybe full moon ) day, the nuns in pink were out for alms in groups.

They would go door by door, pulling the door bell one by one ( for buildings stories high, door bells were actually strings hanging with metal clips right down on the ground for pulling).When the host answered by protruding out their head out of the windows, the monks/nuns would show them their silver bowl in arms asking for alms. Failure was actually quite rare so far as I've observed.

When they felt thirsty during the walking, they either asked pedestrians for water or just went to the pots stored in a small stand in front of the buildings for the donated water (these pots were placed like that for the use of monks).

This social "phenonmenon" was quite impactful in my eyes. It sort of melted away my uncomfortness and hesitation when two underage monks showed their silver bowl to me asking for alms when we were in Sule Pagoda.

The piouety in Buddhism shaped a unique
facet of this nation: people seldom shout nor argue in public, not even horn often; the city still retained a peaceful aroma in spite of the annoying heavy traffic at day time, never a moment of rushing or hurrying.

But it was all ended too suddenly when we finally get to experience this facet of this country.

So while I'm waiting for my delayed flight back home, I had such a strong gut feeling to record these interesting pieces of memories down.

Myanmar, Je'sudemal'lei ( in Myanmar it sounds like "Thank You").