11 MARCH 2013 - LUANG PRABANG, LAOS: Tourists and Laotians wait in the dark for the Tak Bat to start in front of a Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang. The "Tak Bat" is a daily ritual in most of Laos (and other Theravada Buddhist countries like Thailand and Cambodia). Monks leave their temples at dawn and walk silently through the streets and people put rice and other foodstuffs into their alms bowls. Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, is particularly well known for the morning "tak bat" because of the large number temples and monks in the city. Most mornings hundreds of monks go out to collect alms from people. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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