Come September, my niece and a group of her friends would be going to a monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. Some of them most probably would shave their heads and become novice monks and nuns, and I would not be surprised if they have to keep the 227 and 311 precepts for monks and nuns. Tough job that but that would only be for a week or so. These days there are programs like the annual Novitiate Programme in Buddhist Maha Vihara Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere in Malaysia where laypeople, students and working adults included, can don the saffron robe and live the holy life of the monks and nuns for a short period of time; one week, two maybe more, before returning to the ordinary life. In Wat Sri Boen Ruang in Fang, Chiang Mai, one reportedly can become a monk through the monk for a month program at a price. In Malaysia, well wishers become sponsors, I suppose; and participants normally are not required to pay any money. In India, Buddhism flourished when King Asoka ruled. Patrons, I believe, are very important for any religion.
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