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Nuns' lunch chant

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Uploaded on Dec 13, 2009

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kammavaca chant

This monk patiently chanted for us for quite some time -- right through the howling dog and the machine-gun sound of our cameras. The artifact he's chanting from is called a kammavaca -- rules for monks. These are given to the monastery as a gift, often upon the ordination of a monk, by his family. The common term for these artifacts among Western visitors is "Buddhist bible."

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Uploaded on Dec 13, 2009

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Night train to Mandalay

This is probably about 5 am -- before sunrise. We were awakened at 4 by a recorded monks' chant. I was trying to capture the music, but the sounds of the train overwhelmed everything else. As I said on another picture, we had reserved sleeping cars but missed our train and spent the night here.

As much as we were bounced around, ours was the least bouncy car on the whole train. Geri is bravely sipping coffee -- Win brought us coffee but drinking it was a challenge. Dennis calmly reads his Kindle throughout. And Greta looks like she's trying to sleep some more.

I think Nevada's taking pictures of the train staff having breakfast in the middle of the car.

At one point I zoom in on Aldo, who's also trying to record the music. That's what inspired me to make this video.

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Uploaded on Dec 13, 2009

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Nuns Chanting

In Myanmar. This is the sort of the middle school group -- the girls separated into age groups after lunch. The woman in the far corner, near the TV, is grinding tanaka -- a root used to make a paste that's used for decoration and sun protection. Then, after she combs her hair, she puts tanaka on her face. The bed in the back (and the TV and the boom box?) belongs to the senior nun. The flashes are our cameras, of course.

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Uploaded on Dec 13, 2009

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