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Surrounded by China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, Laos is a landlocked country without direct access to the sea. Probably this geographic situation prompts a tendency to highly evaluate water in psychological life and thought of Laotian people.

In fact, they even have Water Holiday (Boun Ok Watsa) and while celebrating their New Year Day (Boun Pimai) over three days in April water is thrown at people on the streets, similar to Songkran in Thailand.

In this picture, you can see the women in the foreground turn over and pour water onto the ground while the monks worship. This ceremony happens every morning as the monks leave their temples and go out on the street to perform the daily pindapata.

Pouring water is a form of sacrificial offering to a deity or ancestors. Similar to burning incenses, pouring water is to show honor, to give thanks and ask forgiveness for past wrongs. The idea of watering may derive from the legend of King Kabinlaphom, whose seven daughters kept his severed head in a cave. The daughters would visit their father's head every year and perform a ritual to bring happiness and good weather.

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When the pre-dawn darkness is dispelled by morning light, the monks leave the monastery grounds to begin their pindapata — their food-gathering rounds. They walk silently, eyes downcast, barefoot, along the lanes and streets of the adjacent neighborhood. They carry their alms bowl, often suspended by a sling across one shoulder. They stop only when they are respectfully and quietly addressed by a layperson waiting at the side of the road to place food offerings in his bowl.

It is an important part of Buddhist belief that one earns merit by providing food (and other necessities) to the monks. Laypersons offer the monks ready-to-eat food of the best quality, such as: fragrant rice or sticky rice, barbecued chicken, pork, fish, curries, soups, as well as cartons of milk, fruit juices, hard-boiled eggs, cakes, cookies, fruits and candies. Some layperson offer food, sometimes along with flowers, every morning. Some do so only on special occasions, such as birthdays or anniversaries of the deaths of close relatives or loved ones.

By 7.30 a.m. the monks have usually completed their rounds. They return to the monastery with (usually) full bowls. Always food is shared with the dek wat — the temple boys who live at the monastery and assist the monks in their housekeeping, in care of the grounds and in running errands. And food is shared with the temple dogs and cats, as well as with anybody else who happens to be around at meal-time. (The Monastic Life by Gerald Roscoe)


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