Monk's Robe Drying, Cambodia


I have an obsession with the robes of Buddhist monks.
I love their variety, their colours.
Whenever I travel I am on the lookout for them - especially when they have been tossed aside, or are in unlikely places.
I took this photo at a busy temple on the road to Oudong, just outside of Phnom Penh. It was hanging on an upper verandah, drying in the breeze.
I always feel like a voyeur when I take these kinds of photographs, because the robes are very intimate things.
They are also sacred objects - in Buddhist countries people always say things like "You never make offerings to the monk - you offer them to the robe." The robe, more than the person, represents the Buddha's teachings and the Buddhist tradition.

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