Why Do Monks Squat To Urinate? – The Secrets Of Life 37

This blog is devoted to things that could be described as “secrets” of life. Many of  “The Secrets of Life” found in this blog are nothing more than observations of the world around us. Many people move through the world without ever really looking at it. So to them, the simple observations about life found in this blog seem to be “secrets”

This particular blog entry is focused on the following picture of some Chinese monks who are urinating.

The Chinese monks are men. Why are they squatting down to urinate? In western countries usually only women squat to urinate. Most men urinate from a standing position.

Why would Chinese monks urinate in a way that seems strange to people from the west?

For the same reason many other people around the world squat to urinate. The picture of the Chinese monks shows them outside urinating. Squatting to urinate is so common that there are toilets made for people who squat to urinate. And that is not just some small section of the public like a handicapped toilet. Toilets designed for squatting urination are the norm in places like China

Japan

Africa

Turkey

and many other places around the world. In fact it is people in the west who are actually the strange ones for using seated toilets. There are many more people in the world population that use squat toilets than use seat toilets.

Some of the “Secrets of Life” found in this blog do consist of something more than simple observation of the world around us. While the above pictures demonstrate that squat toilets are more the norm for human beings than seat toilets are, there has still been no reason provided for why squat toilets are the norm for the majority of the human beings on the planet earth.

It would be easy to claim that modern technology is the reason why squat toilets are more prevalent than seat toilets. Seat toilets were not invented until after the industrial revolution had begun. So the adoption of seat toilets would of course be lower in the worldwide population than squat toilets which required no modern technology.

The problem with that claim would be modern squat toilets. All of the toilets in the pictures above were made of porcelin or plastic. If each of those countries have access to technology to make porcelin or plastic, why didn’t they make seat toilets like people in the West? Why did they make so called “primitive” squat toilets with modern technology?

Because there really is a “Secret of Life” in the difference between squatting to urinate and standing to urinate. For people that like mysteries and secrets, the reason why the Chinese monks are squatting to urinate is for the same reason dogs lift their legs to urinate.

It will take the reader more than simple observation to figure out why a human being squatting to urinate is like a dog lifting it’s leg to urinate. It might be easy to figure out the reason why because the reason why is simple. But it will probably be hard because it does take either some education or a particular way of thinking to figure it out.

Because readers have made it known that they find the mysterious “Secrets of Life” blog entries frustrating, the blog entries where no explanation is provided and the reader is urged to figure things out on their own, a hint will be provided to help figure out this blog entry.

Here is a picture of men using a seat toilet.

The next picture compares one of the men on the seat toilet with a woman who is pretending to use a squat toilet.

Take a minute to examine the picture for differences. The man’s buttocks are on the seat of the toilet while the woman is standing up of course. Do you see anything else that is different between the man and the woman? Remember. The “Secrets of Life” are usually not really secrets, they are just detailed observations of the world around us.

The man’s leg when sitting on the seat toilet is mostly straight up and down.

The legs of the woman demonstrating using the squat toilet are at an angle.

If you can figure out what effect sitting on a seat toilet with the legs straight up and down has on the human body, figure out what effect supporting the body weight on the feet while angling the legs inwards has on the human body, then compare the two for differences, you should be able to figure out why a Chinese monk who squats to urinate is like a dog lifting it’s leg to urinate.