Monkhood - Costs

[thaihome]

Well, then I guess island people are more conservative. Gambling at an ordination? Whisky inside the wat? Huh. Asked the staff about this and they were quite shocked. So, there you go. maybe its just people here.

Anyway, as has been said, you can make it as large or small as you want, but alot of it does depend on how large the family is--the bigger the family the bigger the do.

I understand your concern with some posters talking about drinking (and gambling) during the party after the ordination ceremony. I think if you read closely, none of the poster say the party was inside the wat. My experience in a half dozen or so of these upcountry ordination ceremonies, the party took place either right outside the wat or at some ones house nearby. None instead the building itself, or even in the immediate grounds. No monks or the ordinate himself attend the party. There might be a "bachelor party" of sort with his friends the night before, but that is not the official celebration.

For a son, this is about the biggest day in his life as far as the family is concerned. People's lack of cultural understanding and the ethnocentrism that is often rampant her rears it's ugly head again in many of the comments.

TH

Edited February 4, 2008 by thaihome

[Mosha]

Sorry to disappoint. However my wife's cousins family were gambling in the building where the monks gather to eat and pray. Several Bhudda images etc in there. The women were gambling between cooking stints for the party the day after.

[t.s]

Well, then I guess island people are more conservative. Gambling at an ordination? Whisky inside the wat? Huh. Asked the staff about this and they were quite shocked. So, there you go. maybe its just people here.

Anyway, as has been said, you can make it as large or small as you want, but alot of it does depend on how large the family is--the bigger the family the bigger the do.

whiskey inside the wat in thongsala is very common, i have drank whiskey there every songkran for over 10 years.

[sbk]

I am talking about ordinations not temple festivals. And I am also saying that drinking takes place outside the boundaries of the wat. Most of the festivals are not inside the boundaries of the wat so alcohol is permitted. As Thaihome has already pointed out above.

Also, have to add, it was Pepe's post that made me assume they were drinking at the ordination inside the wat:

bottles were being passed around by the men as we danced around the temple.

Only "dancing around the temple" I can think of at an ordination is when the ordainee (?? not the right word but it escapes me now) is carried around the bodh upon the shoulders of his friends or relatives.