Bokeo: The Pali milieu

I have asked at all the temples here if Pali is studied anywhere in
Huay Xay or Bokeo; the answer is a uniform "no".  More surprisingly:
nobody has heard of any monks gaining such an education in Burma
("Pa-ma") --perhaps reflecting that the connection here is to Shan
state generally, and to the Tai Lue particularly, who seem to be as
badly off as the Laotians themselves in "preserving" Pali studies
(this is a surmise only on my part).

As I sat next to the Wat, writing out pages of Pali exercises
recently, a troupe of Thai tourists arrived, walked around the temple,
and put money into a locked box; the monks briefly recited about 20
words in Pali (to earn the donation, I suppose), and the tourists then
left.  The monks immediately opened up the box, shared the money
between them, started smoking cigarettes, and proceeded down the road
with fireworks under their arms, counting their money openly, and
happily.

They climb trees and pick fruit, they dig the earth and build
(meaningless) monuments, and do not even know enough Pali to write an
inscription above a new doorway of a temple, etc. --it is all in
modern Lao.  A few learn "Lue" script and make of the antique
vernacular a kind of substitute for Pali in magiks of all kinds,
including tattoos (which even the Shan still preserve in Pali).