Thailand is a Buddhist country. Everywhere you go you will find beautiful ancient stupas and breathtaking temples (wats). Thai people look just happy and they will always reciprocate the smiles you give them. They also have a high sense of respect and politeness for foreigners, ‘farangs‘, as they call us. The Buddhist principles are part of their everyday life.
But what Thai people respect more then anything are the monks. They bow and pray in front of monks and give offerings to receive happiness and a peaceful life.
In the old city of Chiang Mai you can find temples and monks everywhere. They spend their time meditating usually in front of Buddha statues but we learnt that meditation can be done also while washing dishes or sweeping. Therefore, our photo essay of this month is about monks doing simple mundane activities… we believe with mindfulness.
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For more info about traveling to Thailand without a travel agent, check out our Thailand Travel Guide
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Join one of the local tours in Thailand:
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- Bangkok at Sunset 5-Hour Bike Tour
- Thai Massage Treatments – Luxury Spa with Hotel Transfer
- Bangkok: 2-Day River Kwai & Erawan National Park Tour
Plan your trip to Asia:
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Join some of the local tours in Thailand:
- Full-Day Phang Nga Bay Cruise with Meals from Phuket
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- Koh Chang: Discover Scuba Diving for Beginners with 2 Dives
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- Ko Tao: Try Scuba Diving 1-Day Experience
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Join some of the local tours in Thailand:
- From Bangkok: Wildlife Rescue and Elephant Rescue Tour
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- Bangkok: Historical Temples Tour & Rooftop Bar at Sunset
- Chiang Mai: Authentic Thai Cooking Class and Farm Visit
- Bangkok Historic Neighborhoods: Morning Bike Tour
22 thoughts on “15 Lovely Photos of Monks Doing Mundane Meditations”
Beautiful shots, and quiet scenes of monks doing everyday activities … just like everyone else. 🙂 Thanks for highlighting your essay!
Thank you, Henry!
Thank you, much appreciated! We’ll check it out, thank you for the invitation.
Many adventures and inspiration on the road, guys 🙂
The Apple pc and camera one are the best 🙂
Thanks, Alex 🙂
Monks are humans after all, so they also make mundane things like us. This is something surprising for a new comer (me too was upset at the beginning, I thought monks could only meditate and pray all day long) but once you live in Thailand you realise that moonkhood is in many cases, just another stage in their human life, so they act and do common things as a common human life. And that’s funnny magic in many senses…
Very nice pictures, I like them all!
Iñaki
Iñaki, you are very right, the monks are at the end all humans, and a lot of them with some strong personal stories behind that are far away from tranquil and quiet lifestyle. We have seen so many of them smoking, eating junk food, too, that our “illusion” about their innocence is now slowly but surely gone.
Yes, staying in a monastery is often just a certain stage in their life and while living their novice life there, they already plan their future outside the monastery, as a businessman, for example, as one of them confessed to us.
Thanks for following 🙂
What is the reason that they are wearing orange? Any idea? Orange is my most favourite color (well I´m Dutch could it be anything else? 😉 ) so I´m wondering why orange? love it though =)
Hi Milene, the tradition of orange (actually the official name is ‘saffron’) started long time ago, when there were only a few options of natural dye. In northern Thailand, monks used a dye from roots or trees that were the most available, for example jack fruit tree. In Tibet robes of the monks have maroon (chestnut) color, which was again the most common and cheapest dye in the past.
Nowadays, I am not sure if they still use natural technique, but the tradition of the colors remains 🙂
Happy travels!
Beautiful pictures, so nice to see!
I like that they feed fishes with a bottle 🙂
Thanks, Serena! Happy you like them 🙂
These are awesome! My favorite is the third one where the monks are watching the girls!
Thanks, Corinne, that’s one of our favourite, too.
Great photos guys! I like how you managed to also capture some unusual moments, monks are humans like everybody else after all 🙂
Thanks, Franca. Yes, they really are and the more often we meet them in shopping malls buying smartphones and cameras and see them smoking, the more we are convinced about this human face of them 🙂
I do most of these same meditations, but I don’t think I’ll ever be confused for a monk! Nice photo-essay.
I love it when you see monks on their phones! The last picture is my favourite!
Thanks, Nigel 🙂
I always love the orange colour on monks’ robes – it always add a splash of brightness onto a photo. Great pictures!
Thank you for commenting and your kind words, Yidian!
Beautiful photos! Loved our travels to Thailand. 🙂 Thanks for sharing Monks carrying on with their daily lives.
Thank you, Robert. We do love Thailand and its culture immensely 🙂
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