| Life
in a monastery seems to be a fairly standard fate awaiting those
from impoverished backgrounds or orphans who have nowhere else to
go. However, with 10% of the entire population within the
religious system, it is evident that the monasteries serve as more
than orphanages, though whether they are havens of peace,
tranquillity and spiritual enlightenment is equally questionable.
Cynics might observe that they appear to be little more than sources
of cheap, even feudal labour and a life of endless drudgery akin to
the worst excesses of the Sisters of Mercy.
The living conditions are fairly primitive,
but then so are those of the population who do not live in the
monasteries, especially in rural areas and even more so for those at
the bottom of the ladder, road workers in particular. It is
notoriously difficult to judge the conditions of others viewed from
a privileged Western background, but I certainly felt pity at the
plight of ten year old boys carrying great rucksacks of flour, LPG
canisters, timber and just about everything else you might need from
the valley floor to monasteries towering thousands of feet higher
along tracks which made my heart sink even without any burden at
all...apart from my trusty Nikon of course.
Maybe it is just within the nature of boys
that they are mean to one another, but the behaviour of the novice
monks observed during my admittedly very brief visit was verging on
that from Lord of the Flies, even to the extent of the older
boys under the supposedly watchful eyes of the monks, inflicting
pretty vicious wounds on the younger or weaker boys with scythes
whilst cutting the grass for example. |
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)