Monk Bowl Village

A few days late. Happy Chinese New Year!

Here are photos of the Monk Bowl Village. This is an area in Bangkok, no more than an alley wide that produces alms bowls for Buddhist monks. This area used to be much larger with several families producing bowls, but has since been reduced to only a few families (apparently, there are only 3 families doing this now). I went here in February on my first day in Bangkok after the snake farm.

This was my first real experience with taking taxis in Bangkok. I hopped in one, attempted to pronounce where I wanted to go and after a blank look, showed the driver the name in Thai. We drove for about 15 minutes through traffic clogged, pollution filled streets. Here's where I started to get a bit of a feel for how lively and active Bangkok is just during the day. The driver eventually stopped on the street, pointed toward a side street and told me to walk that direction. I paid him and off I went.

Now looking back on it, this is probably where the foreign tourist could have been robbed and thrown in the klong (canal). It never occurred to me that I could be in trouble at any time. This lack of fear probably needs to be adjusted sometime in the future. I started off up this side street and after 70yds, I finally saw a sign that indicated the Monk Bowl Village and an arrow pointing in the direction I was walking.

I did kind of think that this could be trouble, but came to a courtyard eventually where the arrow pointed to the left. Now I was a bit confused as to where to go next. Here's where the Thai people are so awesome. A Thai woman saw me looking around and approached me. She asked me if I was looking for the Monk Bowl Village, I shook my head yes and she pointed to a small alley off to the right. I thanked her and walked into the alley...


 

The alms bowl is formed from 8 separate pieces of metal which represents the eight spokes of the wheel of Dharma. Here, the pieces are being formed together.


 

In the past, the pieces would be welded together in a kiln. A little modern convenience is used to speed up the process.


 

This is the guy that sold me two alms bowls. Here, he's showing a bowl that has been tacked together. The bowl now has to be shaped and fired with a lacquer.


 

This woman is shaping the bottom of the bowl and rounding it out. After the shaping is complete, the bowl would be fired with a lacquer and then sold.

This was a great experience seeing how craftsmen use a combination of modern and old technique to manufacture a truly beautiful piece of art. I'll have to photo the completed bowls and post them here. Maybe this weekend.