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Alms Giving Ceremony, Luang Prabang

3.5

#5 of 195 in Things to do in Luang Prabang

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In a World Heritage-listed city, you can take part in one of most sacred and ancient Lao traditions known as Alms Giving Ceremony. The ritual begins at sunrise with around 200 devotees departing from their temples and spreading out all over the city to hand out alms. Before participating in the spiritual ceremony, purchase the simple offerings of rice, traditional sweet snacks, or fresh fruit. Should you wish not to give any alms, keep an appropriate distance from the monks and behave in a respectful manner. Cover your chest, legs, and shoulders in modest clothing, and turn off the flash on your camera. Plan to visit Alms Giving Ceremony during your Luang Prabang vacation using our convenient Luang Prabang online tour itinerary planner.

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Alms Giving Ceremony Reviews

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TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4,372 reviews

Google

4.2

• By Geoff C

  My wife and I enjoyed a short 5 day Wendy Wu “Laos in Focus” private tour in January 2020 as part of an 18 day Asian adventure to celebrate our 40th anniversary. The tour incorporated three nights.....  more »

• By cleeamon

  Our guide took us to a smaller part of town: free from tourists, just us and a few local women handing out rice to the monks. It was extremely humbling and rewarding to be a part of this event. Get...  more »

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Google

• By Dávid Kovács

  Many groups of monks walking along the street (actually more streets) receiving alms. The ceremony begins early in the morning while it's still quite dark. Unfortunately, the ceremony became very touristy. That's not necessarily bad, it helps to keep up the tradition but many of the tourists simply can't behave respectfully. They're going too close trying to take a picture with their mobile phones, they're using flashes etc. Yes, the quality of our pictures isn't that great but taking cool pictures at the price of disturbing the ceremony is not an option for us. If you really need better pictures bring an appropriate photographic equipment with you.

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• By Adam Jasinski

  It deeply saddens me that such a great ceremony has already seen its greatest times and it is all in the past. Most people contributing to the alms giving are tourists guided by tour guides. There are certain rules that ought to be followed in order to show respect to the monks and the tradition. However, mostly tourists from Far East were strongly interfering with the ceremony by not obeying the rules and stopping the procession on several occasions. To summarise: the alms giving is not genuine and nor it is very pleasant to see for cultured people as of now.

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