Giving To Monks

[Rasseru]

I seek guidance about giving to Buddhist monks, in particular about giving food to the monks one sees in the morning in Chiangmai, where I live. I know a little -- a very little -- about giving rice to monks in Luang Prabang, having done it once with some help from a local person. But I know nothing about doing the same kind of thing in Chiangmai, even whether in fact the same kind of thing is done here.

I imagine this subject may have been addressed on this forum before. I did a search but did not find a topic title that seemed on point, so have posted this. Apologies for the trouble if a better search would have answered my question.

[seonai]

Hi, in the past lay people would have stood at the side of the road early morning to offer food to monks and just add food (curry/fish/rice) to the monk's alms bowl as they passed. but for years now the food has been added to the bowl inside plastic bags - this is perfectly acceptable and the food is distributed equally when the monks return to the temple - any excess is distributed to needy people if the monks are good monks. You can add anything you like to the monk's bowl when he/she is walking in the morning. Thai people often add lotus blossoms on moon/monk days

[sutnyod]

- any excess is distributed to needy people if the monks are good monks.

Wow! I thought it is a rule that excess food is distributed. I remember when my children were small they often slipped away to the village pagoda to sample all kinds of food.

@OP: I don't know about Chiang Mai, but usually the monks don't go out during Buddhist holidays. Instead, they stay in the pagoda and the followers bring food there. I usually avoid 'town pagodas' but prefer to visit forest pagodas. If you do the same, don't forget to bring along drinking water, too. If the pagoda is very far and difficult to reach (meaning you are likely to arrive after lunchtime) bring preserved food that can be eaten on the day after.

[Rasseru]

Hello, and thank you both, seonai and sutnyod.

. . . in the past lay people would have stood at the side of the road early morning to offer food to monks and just add food (curry/fish/rice) to the monk's alms bowl as they passed.

That is how things are done even now in Luang Prabang, the only difference I noticed being that the lay people there do not stand as they offer food, but rather kneel or sit on the ground.

You can add anything you like to the monk's bowl when he/she is walking in the morning.

If one gives food that needs to be cooked before eating, for example rice, should one not in fact give it in cooked form?

[Brucenkhamen]

If one gives food that needs to be cooked before eating, for example rice, should one not in fact give it in cooked form?

Yes.

You can donate uncooked food to the monastery though, the lay people who look after the kitchen will deal with it You shouldn't put it in a monks bowl as you don't know whether that monk is undergoing the practice of living only on the food put in his bowl, unlikely unless he's a forest monk though.

[NotYetArahan]

for sofar I know it is recommended to stay lower than the monk with your head. So kneeling is fine. Stooping should do the trick. With a large monk you should make yourself smaller anyway

another thing is to be bare footed. To have the slipper on while the monk is bare footed is not good practice.

I think the monks in Chiang Mai give a short blessing. In that case keep your hands to the forehead while slighly bending till the blessing is finished. If the monk does not bless then the wai is shorter of course.

Best is to observe other people doing it for a while and copy.

However, the most important is the giving and do it as fruitful as possible. The ceremony around it is less important.

[Martin]

"Best is to observe other people doing it for a while and copy."

Excellent advice, for many things, as well as this.

I find Thai people in all walks of life respond well to seeing you doing this (even if your efforts are quite inept).

Manners makyth Man.

[Rasseru]

Thanks, again in some cases, to all for your advice.

[jonniebkk]

I think it is a basic rule for women to kneel when placing food in the bowls so as to be lower than the monks...for men, this is unnecessary...they can be standing...maybe in a slightly hunched position.

[torrenova]

Well at Wat Chaimongkol in Pattaya it is a total shambles and an absolute disgrace how they handle the food gifts. Thousands upon thousands of dishes opened to the air on massive tables just going bad. Not everyday I admit but perhaps a sign of a wat who has too much and has lost touch with reality.

As for giving, I'd rather see whether they really need it as my experience of religions around the world including Thailand is that they have rather a hoard it away mentality.

Also, someone convince me that those orange buckets purchased for say Bt250 do not find their way back to the very same shop and thus all you are doing is enriching the shop. I have heard numerous Thais also believe this.

[Martin]

It must be easy for some of the popular wats to lose touch with reality.

My wife and I got fed up with people coming asking for help and loans and so forth after I came here to live.

We talked it over and decided that, as traditionally it was the monks at the temple who were the 'welfare system' of the villages, we would let it be known that we gave any spare cash that we had available for giving away to the temple for the monks to use to help the needy.

I told my wife that she could tell everybody that "That is his farang way. And he is a stubborn old git---a right buffalo---who won't change his ways."

We have chosen to give most of our support to a tiny little 'forest' temple that serves two quite poor villages.

If we had been in an urban area, we would have looked for a temple in a poor area to help to support, so our contribution went where the need was greatest and had greatest effect.

I would do the same in England. Give to some inner-city project of a church, not to some magnificent Minster.

[AYJAYDEE]

our local temple layelders have taken the innovative step of keeping the buckets and reselling them to the next merit makers rather than seeing the local supermarket sell new or recycled buckets ad nauseum. the money is used for the temple