Off to a good start

Only a few days after arriving in Thailand, I'm already feeling completely at home. No sign of any culture shock, which may be due to the fact that I was able to come 'home' to a house of my own, but undoubtedly also just to my love for Thailand pure and simple.

On Friday 1 October I was already treated to an exceptional event: for the very first time, Chiang Rai hosted the พระ ๑,000 รูป ceremony (1,000 monks). It was essentially an alms-giving ceremony, a daily event in Thailand, but then on a much larger scale. I had seen big alms-giving ceremonies before here in Chiang Rai (on New Year's Day, and at Songkran, the Thai New Year), but never one as big as this. Whether there were really a thousand monks or not is neither here nor there - but I can assure you that one of the main streets in Chiang Rai turned orange (the colour of the robes of Buddhist monks). The people who turned up to offer alms where mainly dressed in white, which made for a very nice contrast.

At first, the monks (from all over the country) were seated in the street, with the crowd sitting and standing in front of them and also alongside, on both sides of the street. Prayers were said by the monks, by a leader of the ceremony and by the people, and then the monks started walking up and down the street in two rows, giving everyone the opportunity to kneel down respectfully and put their offerings (usually food) in the monks' begging bowls. What with the size of the crowd, this went on for quite a while, and we had to wait a long time before we finally got to the front row to make our own offerings.

I felt very privileged to be able to witness such a special ceremony, especially so early on during my stay here. If this exciting start is anything to go by, I'm in for a real treat!