Wat Umong stands in a forest and was built in the 1300s, abandoned shortly after and reopened in the 1960s. It’s an incredibly peaceful place to go and sit for a few hours. And the beauty is both in the nature surrounding and the tunnels with faded murals lining most of the ceilings. The tunnels are low and narrow and dimly lit but if you stand close enough to the light you can see the paintings.
While wandering the tunnels a monk stopped me to chat. The usual beginning of most conversations is “Where are you from?” America got a “that’s very good” response. And then “What is your name?” Renee does not roll off of the tongue easily here so I just respond to whatever phonetically makes sense.
He saw my camera and wanted me to take a picture of the murals. I didn’t know how to explain the low light factor so I set the manual camera to B and hoped that if I hold still something would come out. He was standing close and after I the took the first photo he reached out and touched my earring and held it and my earlobe in his hand long enough that I wondered if I should move away.
I thought it was a little quirky, but didn’t really think about it again until I ended up in the same tunnel by accident later on. As usual I got a little lost. I was above ground at the Stuppa and thought it would be fun to wander along a path in the forest. The path didn’t go far and ended up right at the tunnel of the monk who was very happy to see me again.
I exchanged smiles with a French family wandering the grounds when the monk appeared and waved me to follow back in the tunnels. He proceeded to take my photo with his nokia green glow phone. My only thought at that point was, ‘he’s a monk, what harm will it do to be part of his tourist photo album?’ Then it got strange. He got me to take more photos and then gestured to follow through another tunnel. As we were going down the stairs he moved even closer and wrapped his hand around my arm for just a moment. I swear I thought the monk wanted to kiss me. At that point I did what any smart girl knows to do, I smiled nicely and made my exit.
Having been to a couple of other Wats since that trip I definitely know that monks and women do not come into close contact. But I actually loved that my first interaction with a monk was so inappropriate because it reminded me that they are people too and the robe is just a marker for where they are in their life at this moment.
I did consider taking advantage of the situation and getting a portrait, but using myself as bait for the photo was undesirable so I just let it go. Sometimes it’s just not worth it.
