Source: The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/religion/stories/091303dnrelbuddhistkids.848f6
On September 12, 2003 The Dallas Morning News reported that "in front of a table topped with gold-wrapped gifts, and before a crowd of 100 eager Buddhists, seven boys await holiness. Gary Chanyasubkit, 12, looks up at the ceiling. Anton Nguyen, 11, yawns. Alec Chanthaboun, 9, and Nate Sripinyo, 11, make faces and giggle. All seven boys – soon-to-be novice monks and the pride of the local Thai-American community – slouch on their folding chairs. At the front of the room in the Wat Thai temple, a saffron-robed monk smiles with optimism. The rite of passage that the boys are about to undertake is common among boys in Thailand, and there's no reason to believe that these Americans of Thai descent won't be able to handle it, the monk says. Thais believe that monks are Buddha's earthly representatives, and for a boy to live like a monk, even if it's just for 10 days, is to help his parents go to heaven...A while later, the little monks will return – but, perhaps, not entirely – to their former young lives. "