Brush with Buddhism

A high ranking monk, Sopheap, gave us a talk about Buddhism, and then showed us round one of the local wats - fascinating!! My first faux pas was offering Sopheap my hand to shake - monks aren’t allowed to touch females at all, even accidentally! 95% of the population here are Theravada Buddhists, and Buddhism is a really important influence on culture and the way people live and work. The majority of Buddhist monks were murdered by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s and most of the wats destroyed, but Buddhism re-emerged as the state religion in the 1980s and many wats have been rebuilt in the last few years. I found the decorations at the wat we visited very tacky, and some of the rituals seem a bit daft to me, but the locals treat it all very seriously here. The monks go collecting food and money from local people early every morning, cannot eat after midday and can’t drive themselves, and can get around on motobikes, bicycles or other vehicles as long as they are driven by someone else.