27 Before 27: Final day in Myanmar

After a lovely few days in Bagan, I returned to Yangon and had just one day left in Myanmar. What’s a girl to do with only one day left in a country? Stick around the ship and rest? NO WAY! Instead I was up bright and early for a Noviciation Ceremony.

Myanmar is a primarily Buddhist country and all men have to go to the monastery at least twice in their lives: when they are around nine years old and again when they are about 18. Women can enter the monastery as well but they are not required to do so. The children have to stay for at least a week but most stay longer. While they are at the monastery, the children study Buddhist texts. There are three groups of 20 Buddhist books per group which the monks must memorize and the books get more difficult as you progress through them. Most people pass group one, fewer pass group two and less than 10 monks in the whole country of Myanmar have passed through all three groups.

There is a special ceremony when the little boys become novice monks: a noviciation ceremony. Semester at Sea sponsored a noviciation ceremony for five new novices and myself as well as a number of other members of the shipboard community got to be part of the ceremony.

Parade featuring the new novices.

We arrived at the monastery just in time for a parade of sorts to occur. The parade featured many novices, monks and nuns (female monks) already in the monastery as well as the little boys who were entering the monastery for the first time. There was drumming and dancing as the parade marched around the monastery and down a nearby side street, letting everyone know that the ceremony was about to begin.

During the ceremony, the little boys were introduced to the head monk and recited what seemed like an oath of some kind (they were speaking Burmese so we didn’t really know what was happening). After reciting the oath, the boys’ heads were shaved and they were dressed in official burgundy monk robes. Next they recited their prayers for the first time as novices and were finally presented to the crowd as novice monks. The boys’ families were present for the ceremony and a big cheer roared through the crowd when the new novices were presented. You could tell this was important to the families and they were very proud.

After watching the ceremony, we were able to serve lunch to the monks, novices and nuns in the monastery. I was on banana duty and I have to say, some monks were not excited about the fruit options, or lack thereof (hey, I understand their feelings after eating ship food for the past three months!).

Overall the noviciation ceremony was a unique way to spend the day and offered a small window into Myanmar culture and religion.

Have you had enough of Myanmar?! All right, all right…the next post will be about India, my final port in Asia. Stay tuned!