Time for tourists in Asia to stop behaving badly

Dawn was breaking when I reached the neighborhood of Wat Xieng Thong, one of the most significant Buddhist temples in the historic town of Luang Prabang, in northern Laos. I was there to witness Sai Bat (also known as Tak Bat) -- the morning ceremony in which Buddhist monks walk in single file through the town, collecting alms from devout locals.

The procession is a well-known sight on the Southeast Asian travel circuit. Many years ago, I watched it in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, where locals knelt in front of barefoot, maroon-robed monks, and reverentially placed sticky rice into their bowls. This alms ceremony is an important part of Theravada Buddhism, intended not as charity but as a way of connecting monks with the people who live around them.