From Princes to Paupers in a single day

Still in Bagan, about 9.00am, we came accross a large procession. At the front were people, mainly women, walking in all their traditional finery, followed closely by a line of horses upon which were perched children, mainly boys, aged between 4 and 8 and dressed up as Princes and Princesses complete with bejewelled headresses. The whole was followed by an enormous 'chariot', with a bank of speakers, a drummer and his drum set, key board, guitarist walking alongside and with a smaller chariot attached behind complete with generator for the electric power, the whole being pushed along by a large crowd.
We were witness to a buddist ceremony. The boys were to become novice monks that day, the girls nuns.
Later that afternoon we were visiting a village which had a small monastery. Lo and behold, we came across some of the same boys, sitting cross legged in a line chanting, but this time heads all shaved and in dark red novice monks robes.
Princes to Paupers in a single day.....