Singalong at the Nunnery

On one cold and windy night at Khoune & Khone's Guesthouse, we were eating dinner prepared by Khone and her staff with some of the new guests. One couple was a pair of expats from Shanghai, so we got to talk about China a bit (although our experiences from the countryside differed wildy). After dinner, we were all whisked off (via ancient army-style Jeep) to a local Buddhist nunnery for a celebration that was unidentifiable to me at the time, but Wikipedia has since informed me that it is the sabbath day, Uposatha.

After a wind-swept and jarring ride through Luang Prabang, we arrived at the nunnery. It is located at the top of a big hill that must offer a magnificent view of the city and countryside during the daylight hours.

One thing that startled me a little about this nunnery was that there were so many Lao people! If you walk around LP all day, you might come to the conclusion that it is some sort of a lost-in-the-jungle European city with the number of white people walking around! However, our small group from the guesthouse was the only bunch of honkies at this swarming nunnery! A feeling of 'otherness' crept over me, just as in China. This was a genuine Lao ceremony, and everyone was looking at us like, 'Are you lost? The pizzeria is on the main drag...'

Feelings of otherness aside, I'm really glad that we got to see what this kind of a celebration is really like. There were many novices and nuns walking around with the townsfolk. Some children were watching a cartoon about the young Buddha inside the temple. And...

...there was singing and music! This went on for a while, but I only caught a little bit of it. Melissa found herself as the object of a certain nun's interest, and they talked and talked and talked until Melissa had to painfully excuse herself from the conversation to catch her ride back to K&K!

Cullen