Feeding the Monks in Luang Prabang

On our last morning in Luang Prabang, Laos, I got up before dawn to witness one of Southeast Asia's most compelling daily rituals: monks collecting alms - their daily food. Since the monks don't cook for themselves, the local people, mostly women, provide the monks' nourishment. For Buddhists, this is also a way to amass good karma. The monks carry brass pots through the town in a bright orange procession and women kneel on the sidewalk, dropping balls of sticky rice into their pots as they go by.





It's mostly a silent and beautiful ritual, except for a few shameless tourists who stand just beside the monks, pointing cameras in their faces and clicking away (I tried to stay a discreet distance away -- about a quarter of a block -- and took the pictures above with a big zoom lens). The monks stayed serene and seemed not to notice, but I couldn't help thinking that I wouldn't enjoy a camera in my face at 6am every day.