The Changing Ordination Ceremony

[Laan Yaa Mo]

'Tis the season in Thailand, and, in Burma, Laos and Cambodia for young men to show their maturity, and earn merit for their parents. This used to be a very modest ceremony in the villages wherein the candidate, dressed in white, would ride a horse as the Lord Buddha is said to have done, to the local wat and ordain as a monk. This type of ceremony usually cost around 7,000-10,000 baht.

Nowadays, however, the event has taken on the guise of showing off to the neighbours. Typically, such a ceremony costs at least 200,000 baht for the family and maybe even more. For example, a friend of mine I first met in Canada, held an ordination ceremony for her son in which she had over 100 tables for her guests, entertainment of the luk thung/mor lam kind, with lots of food and alcohol before everyone went to the wat for the ceremony.

A closer friend in a village, Wangthongdaeng, will be spending 200,000 for her son's ordination on 12 April.

The Ordination Ceremony is now one for prestige than one for the actual ordination and the merit transferred to the parents. I guess it also shows that villagers have more money now than in the past to put on these ceremonies. I would suggest that the ceremony in rural Laos, Burma and Cambodia may be on a less extravagant scale until their standard of living increases to the level of Thai villagers.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Here is an example of the traditional type of ceremony one might have at home,

[Laan Yaa Mo]

This is an example of the non-traditional entertainment that will be available at the ordination ceremony on 12 July at Wangthongdaeng. This video is from a wedding at the same village last July, 2013.

[merchant seaman]

Actually an audition for Pattaya GoGo Girls.

[jackspratt]

This is an example of the non-traditional entertainment that will be available at the ordination ceremony on 12 July at Wangthongdaeng. This video is from a wedding at the same village last July, 2013.

Now I can see why you keep going back, Uncle.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Khun Jack, Khun Merchant Seaman, you guys have missed the whole point of the thread namely something about the money now spent to increase one's prestige, if not merit, regarding the ordination ceremonies.

On the other hand, yes, this is the type of rural entertainment that draws me back to the villages year after year after year. 55+

By the way, this was the last song during a 3-hour performance under the hot sweltering Thai sun, so the ladies were a little pooped out. They act much livelier in the other 13 numbers I filmed that day.

[karonsteve]

If you factor in the grocery bill for the dancers I can see why the cost of the celebration has gone up...555

[FrazeeDK]

my half-thai son came over from the States in January of 2007 and went into the monkhood for the minimum week to make merit for his mom... No party, no parade, no dancing girls, no band, no procession throughout the village, just the ceremony with two other young Thai men from the village at the temple.. Pretty simple...

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Yes, that is the way I remember it back in the mid-70s to the mid-80s, and then villagers got more money, and the ante for garnering merit and prestige increased dramatically.