Temple Etiquette
I almost dare you to come to Thailand and never walk inside a temple.
[Image: a photograph taken looking up some stairs to an ornately gilded Thai temple. A khaki-coloured vintage-inspired canvas backpack sits centred on the stairs.]
There are over 300 temples in Chiang Mai alone. Go on. Try it.
But there are a few rules about going inside of one that any courteous traveller would follow.
***RANT: It takes five minutes of your time to google some basic etiquette for whatever country you are going to. Have some f^$%!*# respect and do this! Wherever you are going. And follow those rules ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE POSTED EVERYWHERE IN THE TEMPLE. Seriously. If there is a sign saying "Don't take pictures of the Buddha" DON'T TAKE PICTURES. ARG. I know it's hot, I know it's not your religion, blah, blah, I've heard all the excuses. No one is asking you to prostrate yourself before the Buddha and dedicate your life to the monk-hood. Just that you cover your shoulders.***
Okay, rant over.
*Deep breaths*
So. Here are some very basic rules for visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand.
Fair warning, this is a pretty wordy blog post.
It's a lot, but most of this should be common sense.
I put in a lot of info that I've gleaned over my 7 months so far in Thailand.
There are also a few FYIs and Just So You Knows in there as well. For those skimming for just the important bits, I bolded those.
1. Dress Code:
Cover Up! EVERYONE cover your knees and shoulders. Ladies, cover thine breasts! That's it. That's literally it. No shorts, no tank tops. Leave the clubbing dress at home. A scarf wrapped around your shoulders is FINE if you're wearing a tank top.
FYI: A lot of the big temples have skirts/scarves/cotton trousers to lend out to inappropriately dressed tourists. Usually there is a small fee (10 baht at Wat Phra Singh), but sometimes it's free!
Extra Info: You can definitely wear trousers/jeans/long shorts. But it is always more polite to wear something that covers you all the way down to the ankles. Ladies, it is always more polite to wear a skirt. It's not usually necessary, unless maybe if you are going to a special event or a meditation retreat.
EVEN MORE EXTRA INFO: White is the traditional colour to wear to temple. I don't know why, but when my workplace had a meditation retreat, this is what we were told, and we were asked to wear as much white as possible. RED, YELLOW, and ORANGE are NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THE TEMPLE. These are monk colours.
2. Behaviour:
Ladies: DO NOT TOUCH THE MONK. He is not allowed to touch you. He is not allowed to take anything from your hand. If he is walking towards you, please make sure he can easily pass you without touching you. If you need to give something to a monk, either hand it to a man to give, or put it on the ground. He'll pick it up. If you are donating into his donation bowl, put it directly into the bowl without touching him. You can talk to him, don't worry. He won't bite.
Keep your head lower than the Buddha, and the monks. I'm not saying to crawl on the floor. If you're really tall, I'm not saying bend in half. But if you walk by a monk, or are standing next to the Buddha, hunching a little bit (especially as you walk by a monk) is respectful. In my experience, it's more a mark of respect than something to obey to the letter. Tall people, again, you don't literally have to be lower than that short Thai monk. You'll notice that Thai people will do this if they have to walk between two people who are talking, or if they have to squeeze by you, as well.
Stop touching that! Don't touch the statues. Don't ring the bells. If you don't know what it's for, or you know that you are not supposed to use it, or IF IT IS A RELIGIOUS OBJECT AND YOU ARE NOT PRACTICING THAT RELIGION (I'm looking at you, bell ringers) then don't touch it.
Don't point. If you must, gesture with your entire hand, palm down.
Wai to the monks when you greet them and when you leave. A wai is when you put your hands up, like if you were praying. It is a common greeting everywhere in Thailand, but to a monk, you are meant to wai a little higher, with your thumbs of your hands coming to the centre of your forehead for an extra respectful wai. The monk will not return it.
Don't point your feet at the Buddha. I was really confused by this when I read it the first time in the month leading up to my departure for Thailand. Point your feet? Like in ballet? What they mean is, if you are sitting down, do not have your feet stretched out in the direction of the Buddha (or a monk).
Extras: The most common method of sitting in a temple is to sit on your knees. There is a slight variation in this depending on if you are a man or a woman. Men will typically have their toes curled under and so actually have their weight kind of on the balls of their feet. Women will have the tops of their feet flush against the floor.
EVEN MORE EXTRAS: You can sit however you want in the temple as long as your feet are not pointing towards the Buddha. If sitting on your knees hurts you (I find it very uncomfortable) than sit criss-crossed. Or mermaid style, with your legs curling against the side. (A la the Little Mermaid statue in Denmark). This is perfectly fine.
Take your shoes off when entering a temple. If you see a sign, or a pile of shoes, take them off. Step over the threshhold, not on it, right foot first upon entering.
Don't take photographs if a sign, or a monk, ask you not to. Ask permission to take pictures of a monk, and don't photograph people while they are praying. When taking a photo inside, sit down so as not to block anyway. Sit a bit to the back --don't get in the way for people who are actually there to worship.
Ladies, sometimes you're just not allowed in. Don't walk in anyway. Do what I did, and send in your brother to report on what is inside this secret Man-Cave.
[Image: The entrance to a temple has a large red sign saying: Women are not permitted.]
3. Entrance Fees/Donations
The vast majority of the temples I have gone to have been free. But occasionally there is a fee (this is usually a larger temple). I have paid 3 times - The Grand Palace, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and Wat Phra Singh. The Grand Palace is actually really expensive at 500 baht, but then, there's a lot in there. The others, the price was so low I honestly didn't care much. (Wat Phra Singh was 20 baht. That's not even 1 USD.) And when you pay the cover fee, you're not paying some corporation, you're paying for the temple school and the electricity bill.
Make a donation! There are A LOT of money donation boxes. Most of them are marked with what, specifically, you are donating to. Common donations are for:
Temple Schools: Almost every temple will have a school associated with it, for students too poor to go to a regular school.
Utilities: Water/Electricity isn't free. Electricity in particular is very expensive in Thailand.
Maintenance: These buildings are old, and elaborate, and a crowd of tourists and worshippers swarm them every day. There's some upkeep involved.
Alternative Donations:
Donation bowls: I don't see this in the temples themselves so much, but you'll see monks walking down the streets with large metal bowls in a carry sack, and people will place their donations for the care of the monks into these. If you work/etc. in Thailand, you may have monks periodically come by to bless the building, etc. In this case, anything non-perishable is an acceptable donation. Dry foods, cooking oil, toothpaste, bottled water, etc., all are perfectly acceptable donations. Monks aren't allowed to really own or buy things on their own. These donations are what keep them fed and taken care of.
Sometimes, there will be kids (usually teenagers) near the entrance, carrying a donation box. They'll have pictures and will describe what the donations will go towards. I've learned through teaching here in Thailand, that while these feel kind of scam-y, they're often not. (My students are currently taking donations for rebuilding some monk housing that was destroyed in a fire.)
Here in the North, you may see Hill Tribe kids in traditional costumes who will take a photograph with you, for a fee. You are obviously paying more for a service than making an actual donation. This money will not go to the temple.
Roofing Tile: Like I said already, it takes a lot to keep up with a working temple. So some places allow you to buy a clay roofing tile on site, and donate that to the temple. You can write a prayer or a note on the tile before donating, and then one day, your tile will be on the roof of the temple.
[Image: A large amount of clay roofing tiles are haphazardly piled. Each has something written on it, in a wide variety of languages.]
4. Extra Info Purely for Your Enjoyment/Knowledge:
The nuns are in white because they're not actually full nuns. The nun-hood has technically died out in Buddhism. (As I understand it, to be a fully-ordained nun you have to be inducted by a nun who was inducted by a nun, etc. going back to the original nuns ordained by the Buddha. They died out.) Some places have started it up again, but Thailand still forbids this. So 'nuns' are actually more like acolytes. They are still to be given your upmost respect, and are still treated as full nuns by Thai people. They give the best hugs in the world, just FYI. But only to women. They're not allowed to touch men.
You can be a monk for just a little while. It's actually fairly common practice for Thai men to spend some time as a novice monk, to the point where men who have never done so are actually a little looked down upon. You can do this for a day (one of my students, age 6, recently did this in honour of his deceased grandfather), a few months, or a few years. You can be a monk later in life. I went to a meditation retreat, and all the monks and nuns I talked to have kids --they became monks/nuns later in life! You cannot be a full monk before the age of 18. You can enter/leave the monk-hood three times (as a full monk) three times in your lifetime. You can be a novice, or volunteer with a temple, as much as you like. (As far as I know.)
It's actually fine to take photographs of the Buddha. I read a lot before coming here, and a lot of websites say that it is against the religion or whatnot. By and large, this is false. If a temple doesn't want you taking pictures, there will be a sign. If not, go for it. It is considered rude to take photographs of people praying however.
Monks are by and large REALLY REALLY nice and happy to talk to you. You shouldn't be afraid of them or nervous. Many would be delighted to practice their English and have a discussion with you. A lot of temples will have scheduled times when monks will be available to talk to, IN ENGLISH.
Did I miss anything?