The monks are often housed in single chambers arranged round the courts of a Wat but sometimes in larger buildings outside it.  The number of monks and novices living in one monastery is larger than in Burma, and according to the Bangkok Directory (1907) works out at an average of about 12.  In the larger Wats this figure is considerably exceeded.  Altogether there were 50,764 monks and 10,411 novices in 1907,[220] the province of Ayuthia being decidedly the best provided with clergy.  As in Burma, it is customary for every male to spend some time in a monastery, usually at the age of about 20, and two months is considered the minimum which is respectable.  It is also common to enter a monastery for a short stay on the day when a parent is cremated.  During the season of Vassa all monks go out to collect alms but at other seasons only a few make the daily round and the food collected, as in Burma and Ceylon, is generally not eaten.  But during the dry season it is considered meritorious for monks to make a pilgrimage to Phra Bat and while on the way to live on charity.  They engage to some extent in manual work and occupy themselves with carpentering.[221] As in Burma, education is in their hands, and they also act as doctors, though their treatment has more to do with charms and faith cures than with medicine.

As in Burma there are two sects, the ordinary unreformed body, and the rigorous and select communion founded by Mongkut and called Dhammayut.  It aims at a more austere and useful life but in outward observances the only distinction seems to be that the Dhammayuts hold the alms-bowl in front of them in both hands, whereas the others hold it against the left hip with the left hand only.  The hierarchy is well developed but somewhat secularized, though probably not more so than it was in India under Asoka.  In the official directory where the departments of the Ministry of Public Instruction are enumerated, the Ecclesiastical Department comes immediately after the Bacteriological, the two being clearly regarded as different methods of expelling evil spirits.  The higher clerical appointments are made by the king.  He names four Primates,[222] one of whom is selected as chief.  The Primates with nineteen superior monks form the highest governing body of the Church.  Below them are twelve dignitaries called Gurus, who are often heads of large Wats.  There are also prelates who bear the Cambojan title of Burien equivalent to Mahacarya.  They must have passed an examination in Pali and are chiefly consulted on matters of ceremonial.

It will thus be seen that the differences between the churches of Burma, Ceylon and Siam are slight; hardly more than the local peculiarities which mark the Roman church in Italy, Spain, and England.  Different opinions have been expressed as to the moral tone and conduct of Siamese monks and most critics state that they are somewhat inferior to their Burmese brethren.  The system by which a village undertakes