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Comment by supertofu | Hacker News Reader

India at the time of the Buddha was favorable to wandering ascetics. People were culturally conditioned to donate alms. And, indeed, alms-seeking is required by the vinaya for monks, so they can't live in complete seclusion from society.

Society today is very hostile to wandering folks. Many western monastics independent of monasteries (especially female monastics) have a hard time getting alms without a lot of organization.

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India is still very favorable to wandering ascetics. A European friend of mine walked across India barefoot for a year with nothing but robe, staff, and begging bowl, as a spiritual exercise. He found this quite easy to do (indeed, he was well aware before setting off that it would be easy to do) because there is a vast infrastructure in place to support the local ascetics who do this.

Wow! Amazing to see that not much has changed in 2500 years with regard to the support of wandering ascetics. Culture can be very deeply rooted, especially in a civilization as old as India's.

I went on a bike tour this summer and for a week was living the life of a wandering folk. I experienced no hostility. People were all very friendly and helpful the whole way. Like, super friendly and super helpful, offering me meals and places to sleep. I had a tire blowout which stranded me at a small town gas station for a few hours, and about a dozen dudes came up over that time and offering me use of their tools and generally trying to be of assistance.

I'm very glad that you experienced generosity! But I don't think your experience is the norm. One week of wandering is not exactly a lifetime. I also can't help but assume from your plucky, overconfident dissent that is based on a very short duration of experience that you are a white man.

I am a white guy, but I don't get treated the same travelling through those areas in a car.

I'm pretty green to bicycle touring, but my anecdote reflects accounts I commonly read from other bicycle tourists, many who spend months and in some cases years on the go, all over the world.

Having spent half of every year for the last decade traveling the world by bike, I can confirm what the OP says: one meets helpful people, is often invited to meals or to stay in locals’ homes, etc. And instead of "white", perhaps a better distinction for trouble-free travel is “not black”. There’s a decent amount of South Korean, Japanese, and South American cyclists doing round-the-world or Alaska–Ushuaia journeys, and they have the same positive experiences as any person Americans consider “white”.

That is reassuring. Where were you?

My ride took me from Edmonton to Nelson BC, the town that served as the setting for the 1987 Steve Martin movie "Roxanne". The goal was to get to Vancouver but wildfire smoke got to be severe. That was my first taste of touring and I'm making plans for bigger trips next year.

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