The Buddhist Morning Alms Offering

The Thai (and Indochinese) tradition of offering alms to Buddhist monks in the early morning is a beautiful part of Thai culture that is often missed by most tourists.

In Theravada Buddhism offering alms to monks is an opportunity for lay people to earn merit by performing a good deed. Each monk has a large brass bowl to collect the alms of food offered him by the people. At Cape Panwa Hotel, guests can witness this is ritual when we take them to the temple on Songkran.

This ritual actually takes place on a daily basis – the monks leave their temple at dawn each day and make their rounds (on foot) of the community where their temple is located in order to give local residents, who wait for the monks to pass by the front of their house, a chance to make merit.

I always leave at 6:30 in the morning to witness this – don’t worry breakfast at Cape Panwa Hotel is available till 10:30am!

(Ed - But if you visit Kantary Hills Hotel in Chiang Mai the monks come to you right in front of the hotel!)