Fun Fact Friday #2

Happy Friday everyone! The weeks have been flying by here and I can't believe it's already the weekend and that I'm heading off to country #3 of my time here so far. This weekend we will be heading to Laos, where we will be spending the long weekend in Van Vieng. There we will be doing some tubing and kayaking on the Nam Song River as well as some rock climbing in another area. The reason for the long 4 day weekend is the Makha Bucha Buddhist Holiday that will take place on Monday. During this holiday, Thai Buddhists will visit temples to gain merit and pay their respects to the Buddha. The name "mahka" means third lunar month in Thai, and "bucha" means to honor.

This week I had the amazing opportunity to see Dhammananda Bhikkhuni speak in a three-day lecture series that was held at Payap University. She is the first Thai woman to be ordained as a monk and runs a the only temple in Thailand that has fully ordained nuns. It was incredible to sit in front of such a respected woman in the Buddhist world and hear her speak about the practices of Buddhism. She spoke briefly about women's role in Buddhism, but unfortunately I am missing the final lecture of the series that focuses on women in Buddhism since I am leaving for Laos tonight. Nevertheless, it was incredible to hear her speak and I also ran into our Buddhist monk friend named Lat and he was so excited to see us. We spoke for a while and told him that we would tell him all about our trip to his native country of Laos once we return on Tuesday.

Fun Fact #2:

In Theravada Buddhism, the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism that is mainly practiced in Thailand, monks are required to shave their heads as well as any facial hair, including their eyebrows. However, the fun fact I learned this week is that monks shave their heads on the day of the full moon each month. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the current phase of the moon by observing the length of Buddhist monk's hair. The next full moon occurs on Monday, February 25, so when I see Lat again after my trip, he will be newly shaved and the moon will begin its waning phase.