At the village level, the abbot or Chao Avas is the head of the Wat and is
responsible for all the wat ritual ceremonies and all the property, such as land and houses
that belonged to the wat. In the wat, monks are hierarchically ranked according to their
seniority. The youngest ones are those of novices (Nen) who have just been ordained.
Senior monks are appointed to be mentors looking after and giving advices to younger
monks and novices. The Thai believe that every man should enter the monkhood, at least,
once in their manhood life regardless of the duration of their stay but normally at the
period of 3 months. In the old days, it is believed that one should be ordained before
getting married and having a family. After sometimes in the monkhood, the man will be
considered as “ripe” and he then can judge, by his own, what is right or wrong in
pursuing his worldly life. His mother also gains most merit in this way. In rural areas,
ordination of a man is thus considered a duty of his parent, and the ceremony of which is
also socially considered an expression of social and status of the family in the village.
The wealthy family can afford a large and grand ordination ceremony, involving a large
number of villagers. The ceremony can last a couple of days.