Pindapata

Yesterday, I participated in a small simple alms gathering at BDMS (Pindapata).

Pindapata is not practiced in Singapore. (Begging is outlawed in Singapore, and what muddles the situation is there are bogus monks who begged for money instead of gathering food). Occasionally, some temples do hold pindapata within their temple grounds.

This is the third time I participated in a Pindapata.

The first time was at Bago in Burma. It was an interesting experience. I got a lot of "guidance" from the locals, telling me where to wait and what to do as the monks come by. I got lots of stares from the monks and novices as well (the monks were from a monastary that took in many orphans as novices). Apparently, though ocassionally tourists do wake up early to see the alms round, few actually participated.

The second time I did it was at Luang Prabang in Laos. It was a really bad experience. The problem was that there were a group of touts who targetted tourists. They push their food to the tourists as they were offering food to the monks. Then they started asking for outragous amount of money. We got confused and when we refused to pay the money, they started shouting "Buddha money! Buddha money!" and created quite a scene. They basically spoiled the experience and disturbed the peace of the alms round.

Apparently, the situation has gotten so bad that tourists have been asked to refrain from participating. Other people who had gone to Luang Prabang reported that they were told to just observe and not participate in the Pindapata.

Anyway, the one that was held at BDMS was a simple affair. Although it is not quite how it was practiced in the past, it was a way to let some people partake in an ancient practice. Apparently it was the first time for many people there.