My Travel Adventures

We began our second day in Luang Prabang with a bright and early rise at half past five. After brushing our teeth and dressing hastily, we made our way down to Sisavangvong Road, where the Tak Bat ceremony unfolds every morning around sunrise. Traditionally, the Tak Bat is an almsgiving ritual during which locals give rice to a procession of monks from the temples in the city. In Luang Prabang, however, the whole ceremony has become more of a spectacle for Chinese tour groups: Rice and other foods are sold to tourists, who line the roads for the opportunity to deposit them in vessels carried by the monks. Since the monks are vastly outnumbered, a whole system has been devised whereby they dump the excess food into nearby receptacles, and the food is distributed among people in nearby villages.