Each year as monsoon rains sweep their way over Thailand, tens of thousands of teenage boys shave their heads and are ordained as Buddhist monks in a traditional rite of passage.
每年雨季，雨水普降泰国之时，会有成千上万年轻男孩在传统的成人礼上，接受剃度，到寺院修行一段时间。
Some find their life's vocation during the few weeks they spend in the monastery, and they become full-time monks.
其中一些人会在修行期间受到感化，终身皈依佛门。
Others post videos of themselves on YouTube, as they play air guitar to hard-rock tracks like Yngwie Malmsteen's 'Iron Clad,' or recite religious chants to thumping hip-hop beats.
还有一些小沙弥则将一些搞怪的视频上传到了YouTube上。在视频中，他们要么假装手握吉他疯狂弹奏硬摇滚，好像在模仿英格威•玛姆斯汀(Yngwie Malmsteen)弹奏“铁甲衣”(Iron Clad)的样子，要么就是用西方的嘻哈调子吟诵佛经。
The Buddhist faith practiced by more than 90% of Thailand's population is going through something like culture shock as the country quickly modernizes alongside East Asia's other booming economies. With more Thais going online, often through mobile phones, some of the country's novice monks are becoming online media stars, jarring an older generation that doesn't quite know what to make of it all.
泰国90%以上的人口都信仰佛教，但与其他东亚国家一样，随着经济的蓬勃发展，社会生活日益现代化，泰国的佛教文化开始受到冲击。在泰国，网民越来越多，手机上网也越发普遍，一些年轻僧人正在成为网络明星，令不明就里的老一辈们难以理解。
'Technology is advancing very quickly and we can't keep up,' said Phra Kasem Sanyato, secretary of the Buddhism Protection Center of Thailand, a watchdog for religious affairs. 'The younger generation is losing respect,' added 48-year-old Pornpun Kaewbundit, as she emerged from a temple in Bangkok's historic old town recently.
负责监察佛教事务的泰国佛教保护中心(Buddhism Protection Center of Thailand)的秘书长Phra Kasem Sanyato说，“科技日新月异，我们都落伍了。”现年48岁的Pornpun Kaewbundit最近去了曼谷老城区的一座寺庙，出来的时候她说道，“年轻一代对信仰不那么看重了。”
Besides rocking out to Mr. Malmsteen, who was born in Sweden and lives in Florida, some monks film themselves playing pranks on other novices or shouting out lyrics to the likes of Thailand's heavy-metal band Bodyslam. They often use deodorant sticks or whatever else is at hand as stand-ins for microphones. Brooms often double as guitars.
除了模仿在瑞典出生、目前定居美国佛罗里达州的摇滚明星英格威•玛姆斯汀，一些年轻僧侣还把他们捉弄同伴或者大声翻唱泰国重金属乐队Bodyslam的歌曲的镜头拍摄下来放到网上。他们常常随手拿起一瓶香体露或类似的东西充当麦克风，扫帚则常常被用来充当吉他。
The clips are quickly becoming a genre of their own on YouTube and other sites, with some users taking one clip and remixing it with fresh backing music. The result: mash-ups of monks with shaved heads cavorting about in wigs to Dead or Alive's 1980s hit 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record).'
这种内容在YouTube和其他视频网站上迅速风靡，自成一体。一些人还会把其中某个视频剪辑一下，加入新的背景音乐，混搭出不同的风格。例如，你会看到：一群光头僧人披着假发，嬉闹着在翻唱Dead or Alive乐队八十年代的流行经典“你让我（如唱片般）旋转”(You Spin Me Round (Like A Record))。
Monks old enough to know better are getting caught up in the excitement, too.
就连一些年纪稍长的僧侣也受到了影响。
Phra Klairung Rujidhammo was recently catapulted to national fame when he was filmed performing suggestive dance moves, known here as coyote dancing after the film 'Coyote Ugly' set in a New York dance-bar. Phra Klairung, a chunky temple secretary in his mid-forties, quickly apologized after the clip went viral, explaining that he was trying to cheer people up after flooding hit the area around his temple in northern Bangkok.
四十多岁的寺院住持Phra Klairung Rujidhammo最近引起举国侧目，因为在一段被传到网上的视频中，身材矮胖的他模仿好莱坞电影《女狼俱乐部》(Coyote Ugly)，做出了一些富有挑逗性的舞蹈动作。这部影片事发后，Phra Klairung Rujidhammo迅速出面道歉，解释称自己只是因为洪水袭击了曼谷北部其寺院周边的地区，希望让民众乐观一些才这么做的。
His superiors gave him a two-week suspension, and Phra (Phra is a religious title) Klairung is back collecting food offerings and other alms from the local community each morning.
因为此事，Phra Klairung Rujidhammo（Phra是一种宗教头衔）被停职两周，现在他已经复职，每天早上都到附近居民区募化乞食。
Some Thais, though, fear that the Buddhist clergy's standards are slipping. They are urging Thais to be a little less tolerant than the country's image as a magnet for night-clubbers and sun-seekers might suggest.
一些泰国民众开始担心，佛教僧侣的行为准则变得太过宽松。他们呼吁国家在这个问题上不应过于宽容，就像任由泰国给人留下夜店族和寻欢者乐园的印象一样。
Bangkok jeweler Acharavadee Wongsakon, for instance, on June 30 led a procession of several hundred protesters through the city's famous Chatuchak weekend market and the Khao San Road backpacker district to persuade Thais and foreign tourists to show more respect. That includes avoiding getting inked up with Buddhist tattoos.
例如，曼谷女珠宝商Acharavadee Wongsakon在6月30日组织了一场有数百人参与的示威游行。游行队伍穿过曼谷著名的Chatuchak周末市场和考山路(Khao San Road)背包客区，沿途向泰国民众和外国游客呼吁要尊重佛教，包括不要在身上弄与佛教有关的纹身。
Accompanied by ornate floats and banners saying 'No' to the Disney movie 'Snow Buddies,' which features a dog named Buddha, Ms. Acharavadee silenced the normally raucous backpackers who frequent the area as she and her followers made their way past bars with names such as Lucky Beer and the Lava Lounge.
当Acharavadee Wongsakon一行带着花车和打着对迪斯尼电影《雪狗兄弟》(Snow Buddies)说“不”的横幅走过Lucky Beer、Lava Lounge等众多酒吧门前时，平常喧闹的背包客（这里的常客）都沉默了下来。在电影《雪狗兄弟》中，有只狗的名字叫作“佛陀”(Buddha)。
'I think they have a point,' whispered 23-year-old Carla Bennett from Canada, who was getting her hair braided at a street stall at the side of the road. 'Maybe they are tired of people stomping over what they believe in.'
游行队伍经过时，23岁的加拿大游客卡拉•贝内特(Carla Bennett)正在一个路边摊上编头发，她低声说，“我觉得他们这么做有一定道理。也许他们受够了别人对他们的信仰的随意践踏。”
During a breather between parades, Ms. Acharavadee complained that some Thais regard Buddhism as little more than a detail listed on their national identity cards. 'The Internet is compounding the problem. People are spending less time studying Buddhism, and they are missing its message,' she said.
在游行间歇，Acharavadee Wongsakon抱怨道，一些泰国人对佛教的认知不过就是其国民身份证上的宗教信仰信息而已。“而互联网令这个问题更加严重，人们研习佛教的时间更少了，越来越难领会佛教的启示。”
Another source of worry in religious circles is the fact that Thais are having fewer children than they used to as more families move from farms to the country's cities. Thai women now have an average of 1.5 children, down from more than six in the 1960s. That means fewer teenagers are ordained as novices. All Thai Buddhist males generally get ordained at some point in their lives, though most often in their teenage years and sometimes earlier.
宗教界担心的另一个问题是，随着越来越多家庭从农村移居到城市，泰国的生育率也越来越低。现在的泰国妇女平均生育1.5个孩子，而上个世纪六十年代是六个以上。这意味着出家为僧的青少年越来越少了。一般情况下，泰国所有男性佛教徒在其一生当中都会接受剃度，到寺院修行一段时间，最常见的是在十几岁的时候，也有几岁就剃度的。
Some Buddhists are fighting fire with fire by turning to reality television shows and the Internet to revive interest in Buddhist teachings. Thai cable network True Corp. this year began airing a live, rolling documentary about the lives of nine novice monks ordained at a temple in eastern Bangkok. Snappily titled 'Novice Monks Cultivate Dharma Wisdom,' it was a surprise hit.
有些佛教徒则“借力用力”，通过真人秀电视节目和互联网吸引人们重新关注佛教教义。泰国有线网络公司True Corp.今年就开播了一部真人秀纪录片，分多集介绍了曼谷东部一座寺庙里九名小沙弥的真实生活情况。这部纪录片叫作《参悟佛法的小沙弥》(Novice Monks Cultivate Dharma Wisdom)，收视率出乎意料地好。
One fan, 64-year-old Wallapa Chairat, says she gets up at 5:30 each morning to watch the young monks go around collecting alms. One day she got out of bed at 4 a.m. and left her house in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok to offer food to the young monks herself.
64岁的Wallapa Chairat表示，她每天早晨5:30一起床就打开电视，看里面那几个小沙弥到处化缘。Wallapa Chairat家住曼谷附近的暖武里省(Nonthaburi)。有一天，她凌晨四点钟就起床，离开家，亲自去向这些小沙弥布施。
'The news programs and soap operas are full of angry people who are jealous and fighting,' Ms. Wallapa says. 'But the little monks provide peace and happiness.'
Wallapa Chairat说，“新闻节目和肥皂剧里都是些怒火冲天的人，这些人嫉妒心重，又很好斗。而这几个小沙弥让人体会到了和平、安宁与幸福。”
The young monks seemed to enjoy it, too. 'I think living in the monkhood is the best thing I've ever done in my life,' 9-year-old Theerapath Suthipatharapan told the show after his stint in the temple was up. Unlike other reality shows, the monks aren't voted out by the audience.
纪录片中的小沙弥似乎也很享受整个修行过程。九岁的Theerapath Suthipatharapan在修行结束后告诉节目组，“我觉得在寺庙的修行生活是我长这么大以来所做过的最棒的事情”。与其他真人秀节目不同的是，《参悟佛法的小沙弥》不设任何观众投票活动。