Every year in October, we as the Buddhist people in Thailand, will be getting ready for a ceremony called "Thod Kathin". I believe that, for us Buddhist people in ASEAN would probably have a very similar ceremony or at least have heard of it.
For today's post I'm gonna try my best to explain it as a proud Buddhist that I am and for the readers, who aren't familiar with the ceremony, please feel free to stay tuned, and I'll be happy to answer and share any of your questions, if there are any. Here we go!
With the majority being Buddhist here in Thailand, Buddhism plays an important role in our culture. We have lots of national days, both as a ceremonial day and days off, which are Buddhism-related and Thod Kathin is also one of those ceremonial days, that we would take some actions to.
The word "Kathin" is the name for the robes of an ordained monk aka the orange cloths that monks wear. The word "Thod", actually pronouced as taught means to give/bestow (something from ordinary people to the monk).
So, "Thod Kathin" means "laying down" of new robes to the monks. The offering of new, saffron robes to the monks is particularly meritorious and important. We would do this ceremony after the rainy season that the monks shouldn't leave the temple, as (back in the day) they tended to (unintentionally) destroy people's crop, when they walked around outside. So, they'd stay in and we would bring them stuff they needed, like new robes, food and/or other utensils.
That year, my parents decided to host this event in one of our hometown's temples and invited people we knew to join us and making merits together.
The ceremony would start with a parade of robes, money trees (the bushy looking one in the back), flowers and other utensils.
Here our parade walked inside the temple. Can you see the bells there?. It's very common for temples to have bells. I think it's a symbol of awareness and relief.
After we walked the parade, we went inside Viharn and placed the things we brought in front of the Buddha image and the monks. Here you can see our traditional Tung and flags all over. Since we're northern Thai people, we love presenting those, both in the parade and inside of the Viharn to decorate.
Notes : I wrote a little about "Tung" and "Viharn" in Northern Lanterns of Wat Lok Molee in Chiang Mai - Part III. Feel free to check them out :)
Here you can see the money trees in front of the buddha image and Kathin(s) on the right of the picture. Normally and traditionally, everybody should be sitting on the floor, but the temple had set the chairs for us for convenience sake, which is great for grannies, who have bad knees.
Then, we will give/bestow the monks everything we brought that day. If you're a guy, you can just hand those object to the monks, but if you're a lady (like my mom here in the picture), you have to put it on the small cloth. It's forbidden for a woman to directly touch the monks.
After bestowing session is over, it's time for our prayer. This session could take a little long, and I used to hate it so much when I was a kid.
But right now as I grew up, I found it quite calming and just a good time to be with myself. A little meditation time for myself.
And that is it. The ceremony was done. Lately I really enjoyed the feeling after making merits in the temple, because it's so calm and makes me feel lighter somehow. I guess that's something you'll acquire when you grow up (or old, to be exact.) We took a group photo together.
This is me and my mom in front of the temple. It's one of a rare occasion that I'd wear such a traditional Thai dress like this and I felt good about it.
After that, I also went to visit my granny and show her my Thai costume. She was kinda surprised and willing to take picture with me. (Normally she wouldn't, so I wanna savor this moment 😊)
And that's one day in October for me, guys. Thank you for staying tuned and reading my post. I hope I explained things clearly, but like I said, if I don't please feel free to let me know in the comments. It'll be much appreciated!
So, stay happy and enjoy the moments, everybody.
Khob khun kaa,
Nomnomnoodle 🍜