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Nine Monks Chanting was recorded in a Thai village called Nong Sum. It's upcountry in a region known as Isan, just outside of Roi Et in the northeast. The only way to get there is by dirt road or helicopter or buffalo. It's humid and it's hot. Delicacies are warm ants and snails in the shell. Most of the houses are on stilts because of the monsoons that wash through each year. One or two hundred natives live there at any given time. It's a simple place with charming people. They love to socialize, love to eat and love to lay around laughing. The center of activity in the village is the temple. It's a common building with open sides and exposed beams. It's for practicing a form of Buddhism known as Theravada Buddhism, old school Buddhism, the way of the elders.

The recording was made during a traditional house raising ceremony. The natives have a strict process they follow before inhabiting a new house. They won't move anything into the house until after they have performed their rituals. It's fascinating. They act out dramatic scenes, circle the house burning incense, and devour a lavish feast. Then the monks arrive. Nine of them in mustard colored robes. They take their place inside the house and begin to chant. As they chant they unravel a ball of string. It passes from the first monk to the last and then back again. By the time it makes its way home to the first monk they're done. Nine Monks Chanting in Pali is mesmerizing.