Modern Monk

“Progress” has made its way into western China, but slowly. Most of the people there prefer to cling to a traditional style of living. But some things eventually become ubiquitous in the world, like bottled water and cell phones. These three monks sitting on the side of the hill watching the sun set were just sort of lounging around, one of them drinking a coke, another drinking bottled water, and one was even talking on a cell phone. Turns out they all had cell phones and the guy in the middle even had a car. The guy on the right even spoke English, and they all seemed to have a laugh over the bad pronunciation of words. Just goes to show you how far the penetration of western culture has gone.

Seemed pretty amazing to me when everyone was gone and they got up and walked down the hill and got into a blue Citroen and drove off. I really got a kick out of that.