Cambodia's national motto is "Nation, Religion, King." The king is Norodom Sihamoni, a 55 year old monarch who though largely educated abroad is the symbol of all that is Cambodia. He is also the nominal head of Buddhist practice in the nation.

There have been a bevy of monks crowing the area around my house this week. Even more than usual for a block that has a wat or Buddhist temple on each cardinal point. I don't know what it's about, but I will let you know when I find out.

This child is offering what is a morning ritual throughout southeast Asia. He's giving the monks bat, a small donation to their order or to their monastery and temple (wat.) The monks typically leave their monasteries after morning prayer for two or three hours begging for their own meals and for donations to the various causes they espouse and literally house. Every wat houses widows since they have neglible earning power at best. Most of them have a specific program to which the resident monks dedicate themselves. Wat Tham near work trains men with disabilities including Deaf men to carve traditional Buddhist images. A couple work with people with AIDS and their survivors.

The monks themselves eat one, perhaps two meals a day and never after noon. Yesterday while I was out and about exploring, I saw a couple of teenage monks at a local tourist trap restaurant. My eye was immediately caught by the fact that two Cambodians were sitting there and that two monks were sitting after noon (the start of their fasting time) in front of two glasses of Coke. They sat long enough for me to imagine that they were breaking their fast (something I haven't ever seen happen before.) But no, they got up from the table after an appropriate few moments so as not to look either greedy or ungrateful and walked away leaving full glasses of soda which the two waitresses then set in front of themselves to drink.

Buddhist monks here and in Thailand and Laos can dedicate their entire lives to practice, or they can take short stints of a couple of years before pursuing their secular lives. Almost every man here spends some time in the monastery. I almost got my head shaved this time around because of the heat, but decided against it since it would make me look like a defrocked monk..... I wouldn't like the implication of either being a monk or being defrocked. (Big smile on this end.)