A Separate Peace

Every day at 6am, Vong, the owner of our guesthouse in Luang Prabang, Laos, would line up with other locals to give alms to the city’s Buddhist monks. There were more than 300 monks in our tiny area of the old city. There was pageantry in the process, but it certainly wasn’t for our sake. It was clear that Vong participated in this ritual out of a sense of stewardship and a deep faith that he tried to share with us. He even let my husband, Nellu, take his spot along the procession line.