The Buddhist new year is a cleaning festival everywhere it is kept, though the climate decides the form. In Tibet, Losar means settling debts, scrubbing the house, hanging new prayer flags and a great deal of eating. In Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia the same instinct becomes water: buddha-images are bathed, elders have scented water poured respectfully over their hands, and then the streets turn into a multi-day soaking that most participants would not describe as religious at all. Monks are fed first everywhere, before anything else happens, which is the piece that stays constant.