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    Brighter is Better

    February 1st, 2008 by mary

    We wanted to see the rural parts where the locals live on the outskirts of Siem Reap so we disembarked from our tuktuk on the way back from Tonle Lake and walked the rest of the way along the dirt paths. Through dense trees we saw an explosion of rainbow. It was a new buddhist temple getting its final layer of paint. The saffron robed monks were sweeping, washing, and painting. Statues were being prepared to go to their standing posts. As I was gazing at the technicolor reliefs a monk approached me and struck up a conversation. He had been an ordained monk for 3 years and was focused on learning English. He taught three times a day to the other monks. He said monks live by 227 virtues but he holds 4 to be the dearest. As a monk he must preach five virtues to the common people to guide them to a good life. His exposed skin showed tattoos of a dragon down one arm and buddhist mantras on his chest and forearm. The dragon he got before he entered monkhood. The mantras were for protection. He told us the locals do not like tattoos and think they bring bad luck to a village. He gave us a tour of the temple that had his likeness upon the wall as a founder. This brand spanking new cement one was built to replace the wooden one that the Khmers destroyed. He spoke of some of the stories and characters on the murals. At one panel he stumbled with his words then apologized and said he could not continue the story because his english was not good enough. His worry was that he would use the wrong words and translate the story incorrectly to us, in essence lying. Thus he would commit a sin and could no longer be a monk. So we skipped the panel. We took up a good hour of his time so said bye and continued on our way along the stream that went through Siem Reap. Along the way a few kids invited us to play volleyball with them next to their straw house. You see volleyball nets scattered everywhere in this part of the world. Its a very popular sport along with badminton, soccer, and patong.

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