Time with the monks

by Sentanah Limmase (Indonesia)

I didn't expect to find Thailand

I went to Thailand last year for an internship in a yogurt factory, I felt awkward at first cause 90% of the worker can’t speak English so I need to learn some Thai words. Two months after staying there, I already understand basic Thai and culture, I had so much fun with people from the factory. One thing I noticed that they like to invite me to mookata which is all you can eat buffet, and boy they could eat a lot. One time someone invited me to eat at 2 AM (I ended up going) and it was waiting list, what a shock. After I finished my internship, I decided to do ordination (monk training), I had always had interest in Thai Buddhism, and in Thailand being a monk is such a tradition that when a boy reach some age, they need to do ordination before adulthood so that it could be a good karma for him and his family. Coming from Indonesia, I don’t have such tradition and I just think it would be fun to try. My friend's father, Mr. Joker help me to find local temple, I already ask him 2 months earlier when I started my internship. It's not an easy thing for a foreigner to ordain, nowadays they required police record. Different temple have different rules though, first I went to the famous Wat Arun in Bangkok. There I met another Indonesian guy who turns out been living in Thailand for 20 years, he is now living in Wat Arun managing a school for village girls to prevent human trafficking. I never thought the ordinary me would find such important but humble guy here, I looked at his wall of fame and he had pictures with famous people like Obama, Thai King, prime minister of Japan, etc. He even got the time to talk to me for 3 hours, he said it’s a good karma to try this, if it meant to be it will be. I never forget that. After that I went to my second option Wat Umong which is the north to Chiang Mai, although I travel quite far, it turns out they require a lot of paperwork and pre-monk trial time which I couldn’t considering my visa will end in a month so I look for another place. I was given out of hope and thought “okay, maybe this isn’t the right time”, when suddenly Mr. Joker told me he had found another temple that might be allowing me to stay, then I thought there’s no harm to try. Two days later we went to the north to Nan province, the border or Laos. The temple is Wat Nanthaburi which is different from the two other city temple I visited before, this temple located far away in the middle of the forest. The head monk is really nice to me, and it decided that I will stay there for 25 days before my visa expires. My Ajahn (teacher) who’s been a monk for 20 years is really a funny guy, he spent 5 years in the US so I had no problem talking to him. After that they shave my head (also my eyebrows), I wear lots of robes which is really hot during the day, I wake up at 4.30 am and walk 2 km to the nearest village to gather foods, I clean the temple, do chanting, have a lot of meditation, it’s really quite an experience since they took away my phone so I could be concentrated. Monks could only eat before 12 pm, the villager will give us foods which mostly Thai foods but one time they gave me macaroon and I was really surprised to find it in a forest like this. I really appreciate that they are really helpful to me being a foreigner, and the grandmothers who wake up earlier than me to cook some food for the monks, it really warms my heart to see their kindness. I learn a lot of Thai culture and Buddhism at the time I spent there and I promise myself I would visit Thai again.