Robes for the monks via Facebook

About A hundred people of various ages eat a hearty lunch in a monastery compound, some of them sitting on the ground, while others enjoy the folk dances being performed. This is a Kathina ceremony in remote, rural Lemyethna, a township in Myanmar’s Ayeyawady region. Interestingly, it’s all been arranged on Facebook.
The Buddhist faithful have gathered to offer the monks new robes and other donations. It’s important that no one make a donation on his own – you have to do so as part of a group to reap the rewards of good health and happiness.
A woman leads the Kathina procession holding a tray containing bananas and coconut. Behind her, men carry the Kathina tree, also known as Padaythabin, followed by the orchestra. Some carry drums and bamboo clappers, while others dance.
The procession continues to the monastery to convene the event. The bananas and coconuts are offered to the Buddha. The Padaythabin becomes a kind of shelf on which various offerings and sums of money are placed.
The procession to the Kyee-taw-kon Monastery is by foot along a bumpy dirt path less than a metre wide, through paddy fields and plantations typical of Ayeyawady, which is the country’s primary source of rice. There are only about 10 lampposts along a road of several kilometres. The residents have electricity at home only between 5 and 10pm. Such is life in rural Myanmar.
When the procession reaches the monastery, lunch is served and then the Kathina can begin, with a sermon by a monk. Donation offerings to the monks are celebrated.
The event was organised by the Saytanarpankhing Foundation under the leadership of Theravada Buddhist monk Ashin Tejananda. The foundation is comprised mostly of young people from Yangon. Donors, members and the monks arranged the whole event via the social media. Thus it was Facebook that made the donations to the monastery possible.
“I’m not a member of the foundation – I met them on Facebook,” says Cho Zin Yu, a first-time Kathina celebrant. “I love charitable works, so I decided to come along.”
The robes given to the monks for Kathina are believed to be the “noblest”, with characteristics distinct from those presented at other events. People can donate ordinary robes any time of year, but Kathina robes are only given between the first waning of Thidingyut and the full moon day of Tazaungmone each year. A monastery can only host a Kathina ceremony once a year and each monk is allowed to receive only one set of robes.
As Ashin Tejananda explains during his sermon, monks in the Lord Buddha’s day possessed only one robe. And even today, the only monks who “deserve” Kathina robes are those who spend Vassa – the annual three-month retreat, usually from mid-July to mid-October – at one monastery. It’s assumed that the Buddha |distributed Kathina robes as |rewards to these monks for their |dedication.
Ashin Tejananda founded Saytanarpankhing and began his philanthropic works in 2006. The foundation has established a library in the Lemyethna village of Khamouksu.
Ashin Tejananda is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Buddhism at Thailand’s Mahachulalongkorn University.
Hin Nwe Soe, a Yangon accountant, joined the foundation in 2011. “I’m now working for the library and other charitable projects of the foundation,” she says, “like donating to poor children and volunteering with the elderly.”
Myanmar has many such civic organisations that provide humanitarian aid, from cash and other items of value to training underprivileged kids.
People express their sense of |social accountability however they can. For many young people today, philanthropic work has become an interesting and rewarding part of daily life.