A Humbling Experience in a Laotian City
By M.P. Prabhakaran
Luang Prabang, Laos: It was November 23, 2006. I woke up in the morning with the sad feeling that I had only a few more hours left to spend in Luang Prabang. The day before, I had been out all day, exploring the city. Area-wise, it doesn’t take one full day to cover the length and breadth of it, even on foot. But there is something exotic about this lush little place at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers which leaves one with the feeling that he hasn’t had enough even after taking in its beauty all day.
In an article published in The New York Times on March 11, 1990, Nicholas D. Kristof, the paper’s Beijing bureau chief at the time and now one of its Op-Ed columnists, described the city as “one of the most authentic windows left on Asia as it used to be.” I wouldn't go that far. Maybe it was so in 1990. Since then it has changed vastly. But it still has a charm of its own, a charm that prompted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to include it in its World Heritage List. Ever since the UNESCO bestowed that honor on it in 1995, Luang Prabang has been enjoying the same status as Angkor Wat of Cambodia, the Taj Mahal of India and other World Heritage Sites. And it has also been enjoying an influx of tourists.
The place gets its name from Pra Bang, meaning little Buddha in Lao. The little Buddha’s image, a tad below 33 inches in height and about 119 pounds in weight, was cast in a mixture of gold, silver and bronze. It was cast in Sri Lanka, reportedly in the first century A.D. From Sri Lanka it was taken to Cambodia. It was given to the ruler of Laos in the 15th century when the kingdom came under Cambodian suzerainty. A gilt bronze copy of Pra Bang now sits in the National Museum in Luang Prabang. The original statue, 90% of which is gold, is kept under lock and key in the country’s national bank. Pra Bang shows the Buddha standing, with arms raised forward at the elbows, palms facing forward. This hand gesture, known as the Abhaya Mudra (the sign of fearlessness), signifies assurance and protection.
The museum – which was once the royal palace, built by King Sisavang Vong between 1904 and 1909 – is one of the main tourist attractions in Luang Prabang. Apart from the bronze copy of Pra Bang, it houses the royal throne of the Lan Xang Kingdom and many other regalia and religious treasures.
Women's Status
I couldn’t help noticing one thing when I saw the king’s and queen’s bedrooms. I am not referring to the difference in size of the rooms. I am referring to the noticeable difference in elegance of the two beds. The king’s bed has a headboard and a footboard. The footboard has Erawan, the three-headed elephant symbolizing the three kingdoms of Laos, carved on it. All these were missing from the queen’s bed. Does it have something to do with Theravada Buddhism, the school of Buddhism practiced in Laos? The thought did occur to me. Theravada, meaning the “Doctrine of the Elders,” doesn’t give women equal status with men.
However, I had reason to dispel the thought as fast as it occurred. What I had witnessed while entering the museum was a reminder that the Laotian society has outgrown the religious doctrine that treated women unequally. In front of Pra Bang, which was only a few feet away from the entrance, I had seen women in blue jeans sitting side by side with men and chanting the famous Buddhist prayer: "Buddham Sharanam Gachhami, Dharmam Sharanam Gachhami, Sangham Sharanam Gachhami."
Progress represented by women's wearing of blue jeans may be dismissed by some as merely cosmetic. But Luang Prabang also has concrete evidence to show that women there have made remarkable progress, their religious relegation to inferior status notwithstanding. Most of the restaurants, guesthouses and other businesses in Luang Prabang are either run by women or owned by them. And at the night market, which the long stretch of the road in front of the museum gets transformed into at sunset and which is another big draw among tourists, most of those whom I saw selling their wares were women. One of the women got into a heated argument with me and wouldn't let me go until I compensated her for the damage I caused to her antique ashtray by accidentally stepping upon it. She and almost all other vendors knew English adequate enough to conduct business with foreigners -- another proof of progress.
Apart from Pra Bang, the city has another important association with the Buddha. Legend has it that “the Buddha smiled when he rested here for a day during his travels, prophesying that it would one day be the site of a rich and powerful capital city.” In 1354, it became the capital of Lan Xang Kingdom or the Kingdom of a Million Elephants. The capital moved to Vientiane in 1560. The move was significant only politically, though. Luang Prabang continued to be the cultural capital of Laos. It has remained so till today.
As I had only a few more hours left to savor Luang Prabang, I got out of the guesthouse I was staying in early in the morning. There was another reason for getting out early: the owner of the guesthouse had told me the previous night that, if I could stir out before sunrise, I would be witnessing at the street corner outside something I would cherish all my life.
“What is it?” I had asked her.
“Go and see it for yourself. It is Luang Prabang’s special gift to foreigners,” she had said.
My curiosity had already been aroused and I was not going to miss it for anything in the world. I was out at the street corner at 5:45 am. Two foreign tourists who, like me, had heard about it had already arrived there. They wanted to capture the moment, one on his video camera. He told me what we were going to witness.
At the street corner, a few women were sitting with baskets and bowls in front of them. They were waiting for Buddhist monks from nearby monasteries who would soon be coming by to collect what they had in their baskets and bowls. What they had were their offerings – the monks’ food for the day, mainly rice.
Offerings to Monks, Not Alms
Alms giving and alms receiving are considered rituals under Buddhism. Because they are rituals, the givers don’t call what they give alms. They call them their offerings to the monks. Buddhist monks don’t beg. They accept whatever is offered. It is a common practice among Buddhist monks, especially in Asian countries, to go around the village early in the morning with bowls in hand and collect the devotees’ offerings. In Luang Prabang, the devotees go a step further. They go out and meet the monks half way.
In a few minutes, rows and rows of orange-robed monks, with bowls in hand, began to arrive (see picture, left). The color of the robe the Buddhist monk wears varies from country to country. All the monks I saw in Luang Prabang wore robes of orange color. Under Buddhism, robes and bowls are very important to monks and nuns. The Buddha had said: “Just as a bird takes its wings with it wherever it flies, so the monk takes his robes and bowl with him wherever he goes.”
Under Theravada Buddhism, women are not supposed to stand higher than monks. “Could that be the reason why all women who had come to the street corner with their offerings were seen sitting?” I asked myself. Though they were sitting, rather than kneeling as is the Buddhist custom, there was not an iota of immodesty in any one of them.
It was awesome to watch the smiling monks silently arrive, collect in their bowls what the smiling Laotian women offer, and then move on to the next street corner, and thence to the next neighborhood. I knew that any one of them was competent, and some of them qualified, enough to take up any job in this modern world. Any one of them could easily have more material comforts than what the daily offerings of the devotees provided them. But, following in the footsteps of the Buddha, they chose the life of total renunciation and the contentment that came from it.
For a person living in New York, in a per-hour society that measures success in life in dollars one makes per hour, it was quite a revelatory experience, a very humbling one.
[Originally published on February 18, 2007. It has since been revised.]
[Readers are invited to comment. Send your comments to letters@eastwestinquirer.com]
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Readers' Responses
'I Really Enjoyed' It
I really enjoyed this entry. You certainly are a world traveler! Wish you the best.
Nancy Shealy, New York, U.S.A.
February 21, 2007
'Loved' It
Just read the article on Luang Prabang. I loved it. I had been there once and would like to go back some time soon.
Haresh Advani, Chiang Mai, Thailand
February 20, 2007
Not a Superior Way of Life
Re Laotian monks' life: I am not sure it is a superior way of life to renounce everything and then live off the generosity of those who have to work for a living. Didn't Gandhi say, Work is Worship?
Porus Cooper, New Jersey, U.S.A.
February 19, 2007