> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # You Are Allowed to Talk to a Monk. Almost Nobody Does. - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/talking-to-monks-in-thailand/ - Published: 2026-09-22T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-19T12:24:41.000Z - Description: There is a generation of monks in Thailand who were not ordained at twenty and have degrees, and they will happily talk to you for twenty minutes. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Temples & Culture Most visitors experience Thai Buddhism as architecture. A wat, a gold Buddha, some rules about photographs, and a walk past. The religion is treated as a building rather than a living thing with 300,000 monks in it, and almost nobody who comes to Thailand thinks to talk to one. This is a missed opportunity, and also slightly awkward, and the awkwardness is entirely avoidable. Last verified 25 September 2026. ## Who you would actually be talking to **The image of the chanting novice is not the whole story.** Thai ordination has long included a later-life path, and there are a large number of monks in their thirties, forties and fifties who had careers, and degrees, and often a life completely unlike the one in the temple before they were ordained. There are monks in Thailand with doctorates. There are monks who ran companies. There are monks who are recognisably the most intelligent people you will meet on a two-week trip, because they chose to give up the income that would have let them be otherwise. And there are monks who are sixteen and are genuinely just sixteen. Both exist and the institution is honest about it. ## The physical rules, which are not bureaucracy **Women must not touch a monk or hand anything directly to one.** This is a real custom with real consequences, and it is the one rule where a visitor doing the wrong thing is genuinely conspicuous. Put something on a table or a cloth, or hand it to an attendant, or hand it to a man who can pass it on. **Men sitting beside a monk should not touch him, which is easier, and should keep a small gap.** Not a dramatic distance. A normal conversational gap, which in practice means do not sit with your knee against his. **Sit so the monk is not lower than you, if you can manage it.** In an open-air courtyard this is usually fine. It is the one situation where this genuinely matters and it is the only place the hierarchy is enforced, because in most temples a monk is seated on a higher platform when talking to visitors. **Lower your head slightly and do not point at him, and do not gesture at a monk with a finger.** A hand gesture is better than a finger. ## The conversation rules, which are much softer than they sound **Do not ask about money, and do not ask a monk to "bless" an object and then give him something for it.** A small donation box exists at most temples and you can put something in it without a ceremony. **Do not ask about your soul, your destiny, or whether a monk can fix something.** Foreigners sometimes ask whether a monk will pray for a visa extension or a sick relative. This is politely declined and it is the one request that genuinely makes a monk uncomfortable, because the whole structure of the thing is that they are not a channel to a favour. **You can absolutely ask about Buddhism, about the temple, about** [**meditation**](https://easythailandvisa.com/meditation-retreat-in-thailand/)**, and about his life.** These are the questions monks enjoy and are well placed to answer. ## What to say **The easiest opening in the world is to say hello and ask whether you may sit nearby.** In Thai, *sawasdee khrap*, and a gesture at the ground beside you. A gesture towards the ground means "may I", and it is understood immediately and is never rude. On its own it is often enough. **If you have a little Thai, the second best thing is to ask what he does.** "What is your work here" is a genuinely good question and gets a real answer, because monks have genuine jobs in the temple: teaching, administration, chanting, caring for the building, [funeral](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-wedding-and-funeral-customs-as-a-guest/) rites, counselling people who are in trouble. ## What actually happens, if you try You sit. He asks a question, usually a slightly surprising one, often about where you are from and what you do. The conversation runs for five or ten minutes, possibly twenty if he is free. He will be warm, unhurried and interested, and he will very likely ask you something you are not expecting, because monks in Thailand are trained to ask questions and the skill is trained. Sometimes you will be asked for your contact details. This is genuine and it is used for real purposes: monks in the city run English-language teaching, sponsor students in the provinces, run small charities, and maintain international networks. It is not a fundraising approach to your wallet. It is also not something to feel obliged by, and you can say no to giving a number and you will not offend anyone. ## Where to find them **Wat Mahathat in Bangkok** has an established practice of monks sitting with visitors, and it is the easiest place in the country to have this conversation with no effort on your part. **Almost any city temple in the evening.** The courtyard is open, there are usually two or three monks sitting around, and nobody stops you sitting nearby. The evening is when they are least busy and most relaxed. **Chiang Mai and the northern temples are more open to this than the tourist temples in the south.** The southern resort temples have monks on a rota, which is a different kind of interaction. ## One thing not to do Do not ask a monk how to get rich, and do not follow the people who do. There is a persistent group of visitors in Thailand being told by a monk-like figure that a donation of a specific amount unlocks financial success, and it is a well-worn con involving a fabricated lineage. Real monks do not ask you for money and real monks will not tell you what a gift buys you in terms of return. The genuine article is sitting on a bench in a courtyard, being asked a question about your life by somebody who gave something up, and finding it unexpectedly affecting. That is freely available to anyone who walks in and sits down. **More on this** - [Silk Is the One Thai Thing You Should Buy and Almost Nobody](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-silk-and-textiles-what-to-buy/) - [The Nine Days Thailand Goes Fully Vegetarian Are the Part](https://easythailandvisa.com/chinese-new-year-in-thailand/) - [Nobody Is Going to Shout at You in Thailand](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-anger-and-face-how-not-to-offend/) - [You Walked Past Nine Shrines This Morning and Did Not Know](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-spirit-houses-offerings-and-what-not-to-do/) - [The Temples Worth the Train, and the Ones That Are Just a](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-temples-worth-the-train/)