Morning Alms, a photo from Louangphabang, North

Photographer's Note

Tak Bat or morning alms is a living Buddhist tradition and an important aspect of the Lao culture which has become a tourist attraction on the must see/do list of Luang Prabang. The ritual of alms-giving ceremony takes place all day at dawn where the monks in the city of Luang Prabang out of their temples, barefoot, dressed in their colorful robes oranges, to collect alms in the form of offerings of rice on the part of devotees kneeling on the floor, or seated on low stools, as most of them (including locals and tourists) do these days.

Alms giving takes place beginning on the main street of Luang Prabang before spreading out to all the side streets. The idea of the alms giving is for the Buddhist monks to collect food for their one meal of a day. The offerings of alms-giving ceremony is generally food (glutinous rice mostly), although they are also delivered another kind of offerings such as biscuits, fruit, etc. However, tourists are discouraged from buying food from enterprising vendors who are more concerned about profit than quality and hygiene. The rice is inedible, and tourists are charged an exorbitant price.

The ceremony begins with the exit of monks from the Temple Wat Mai, located on the street Sisavangvong road, surrounding Wat Mai through the surrounding streets and later the monks end the ceremony once again returning to the temple Wat Mai. The better shots would be at the end of the route and not on the main street, as these are mostly crowded with people and ‘paparazzis’. There are just the locals there, and the line of monks becomes less dispersed as they slow down in their walk. The atmosphere felt here is also less touristy.

pajaran, COSTANTINO, abmdsudi, CLODO, holmertz has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

COSTANTINO (117726) 2017-04-06 1:12

Hello dear May and have a nice time and a
happy new day
origina version
impressive capture
your inspiration created
the best
regards
Costantino

abmdsudi (95869) 2017-04-06 1:38

Hi May
Your extreme tight crop works well isolating them from any distraction and this make them stand out thus attention falls on the punchy orange robes. Excellent viewpoint, use of dof and impressive how they smoothly recede diagonally giving us an idea of movements and space. Well done under this circumstances with an appealing result of such a lovely moment you captured - one to treasure! Congrats
Best wishes

lousat (139960) 2017-04-06 2:01

Hi May,this is a great idea,a very original way to show us the orange monkeys,one of the most curious never seen on TE,lovely composition and bright colors,i like it! Have a nice day and thanks,Luciano

Sergiom (117241) 2017-04-06 5:56

Bonjour May

J'aime beaucoup le choix du cadrage très serré sur les bras et les épaules des moines.J'aime l'espèce de mouvement que cela produit. Une réduction à l'essentiel.

Amicalement

Serge

Nicou (193814) 2017-04-06 6:37

Hello

quelle largeur quel effet cela donne sueprbe image tout en orange quels moines et vue quel rendu et iamge fantastique compo et captage.
Bravo et amitié
Nicou

BennyV (34772) 2017-04-06 6:46

A respectful picture of morning alms. I was a bit distraught by the number of silly photographing tourists in LP, but this one has a really nice (and respectful) touch to it, which I really like.

The heavy black frame is a bit heavy to me, I think the shot would be stronger with white around it.

Cheers

Benny

CLODO (45118) 2017-04-06 7:31

Hi May

Rather unusual picture with your perspective on the safran dress and the horizontal bookmark size.
Cheers
CLODO

holmertz (103584) 2017-04-06 10:37

Hello May,
You cropped this very elegantly and more or less transformed the young monks into a pattern of orange and light brown. Your description of the tourist hysteria surrounding this solemn ritual makes me a bit sad, but this is a discreet and smart way of capturing the ceremony. When I was in Luang Prabang in early 1973 there were no tourists at all (but there was war) and I was more or less the only photographer in town.
Kind regards,
Gert

serp2000 (47063) 2017-04-06 10:49

Hello, May,
Yep, I was in Luangprabang a few years ago too. Thanks for this creative cropped photo, simple but interesting composition. I like your informative note, I also remember a few traditional Buddhist ceremonies there.
Best!
Serghei

jemaflor (148180) 2017-04-06 14:02

Hi May,
Very original photo, so photogenic result, good idea and good management, tfs.

No_One (4) 2017-04-08 2:02

Hi May
Unique and surreal composition and I really like that you chose this way to portray the scene. Removing the faces from the monks removes the individual personalities giving a timeless ageless feel to the photo. It's not about the people, it's about the ceremony
Nicely done and great idea
Cheers
Noel

peterpap (2863) 2017-05-02 13:51

Hello there! Common scene, but a nice idea to crop that much, sometimes you don`t need to show it all, and still, we understand. Great job. Greetings