Thailand's novice attempts to launch female monkhood

Thailand's novice attempts to launch female monkhood

By Peter Janssen

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand (DPA): Every Sunday morning a Buddhist
service is held at the Songdharmakalayani temple, 52 kilometers
west of Bangkok, offering something unique to this land of
ubiquitous monks, pagodas, shrines and Buddha statues.

"I am offering something that Thai society is lacking," said
Chatsumarn Kabilsingh. "You know, you don't go to the temple to
get rich, although that's the advertisement these days."

Chatsumarn, 56, a recently ordained novice monk who now goes
by the name Dhammananda, was formerly a professor in Buddhism at
Bangkok's respected Thammasat University, and therefore has an
unusually profound academic understanding of the 2,544-year-old
religion.

But what makes Chatsumarn unique in Thailand is the fact that
she is a she.

"Since Thailand has been a nation for the past 700 years there
has never been a fully ordained bhikkhuni (female monk)," said
Chatsumarn. Bhikkhuni are to be distinguished from "mae chi," or
Buddhist nuns, who are not permitted to wear the safron robes of
monks and are not ordained.

On February 6 Chatsumarn was ordained as a novice monk in Sri
Lanka and if she abides by the novice's strict code of conduct
over the next two years she will be eligible to become a fully
ordained monk.

However, her ordination will need to rely upon the Sri Lanka
Sangha - the Buddhist equivalent of a clergy - because the Thai
Sangha refuses to recognize her novice status.

Since 1928, Thailand's Buddhist Sangha has banned the
ordination of female monks, called bhikkhuni.

Narin Phasit, an early critic of Thai society, decided to
ordain his two daughters as novices in April 28, 1928, to protest
against the lax habits of male monks and the unfairness of
keeping women out of the Buddhist monkhood.

Thai authorities responded to this radical move by declaring
Narin crazy and literally disrobing his daughters, who were also
jailed for a few days to drive the message home.

Since then the debate on women in the Thai monkhood has been a
dead issue.

"It's like a door that's been locked, and the lock is rusty
and the key is lost," said Chatsumarn.

Chatsumarn is now looking for a way to allow Thai women to
become monks, but like Narin, she is already coming up against
Thailand's conservative religious establishment.

Last month, for instance, Thailand's army-owned TV Channel 5
canceled plans to air two chat shows featuring Chatsumarn because
they feared the interviews might have an "undesirable" impact on
Thai society.

The Thai Journalist Association protested the cancellations,
pointing out that the decision went against Thailand's 1997
Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom to
practice one's religion of choice.

Thailand's Sangha shows no sign of amending its 1928 law
prohibiting women from becoming monks in Thailand.

"We don't stop Thai women from becoming novices or monks in
Sri Lanka, but they will not be recognized by the Thai Sangha as
bhikkuni," Manas Pharkphoom, director of the Office of the
Secretariat of the Sangha Supreme Council, told Deutsche Presse-
Agentur.

Chatsumarn has not been put off by the Thai Sangha's lack of
support.

The notion of female monks is not new to Buddhism. Even in the
Buddha's lifetime, women were ordained as monks and women were
deemed on an equal footing with men in terms of being capable of
obtaining enlightenment.

Once a bhikkuni Sangha had been established by the Buddha,
however, he introduced a regulation that women must be ordained
by five bhikkuni and five bhikku (male monks), and herein lies
the catch.

Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma) follow the Theravada
tradition of Buddhism, which is deemed stricter in adhering to
the original teachings of the Buddha than the Mahayana tradition,
which is followed in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The only Theravada Buddhist country that currently has a
community of female monks is Sri Lanka, and they were ordained by
Korean female monks of the Mahayana sect only about seven years
ago, which theoretically is not recognized by Theravada purists.

For Chatsumarn, the debate is academic.

"What I'm trying to prove is that during the Buddha's time
there was no Mahayana or Theravada, and ordination was given to
women, period," she said.

With or without the Thai Sangha's approval, Chatsumarn will
seek her ordination as a full monk within two years, and then go
on to build up a community of bhukkuni in Thailand which will
eventually be numerous enough to ordain women themselves.

Meanwhile, Chatsumarn, or Dhammananda, holds sermons for the
public every Sunday at her temple in Nakhon Pathom, at which she
attempts to teach the true meaning of Buddhism - in both Thai and
English.

"I intend to lead my life quietly, be a good monk, set an
example and once I have my community of female monks then maybe
I'll start talking to the authorities," she said, beaming a
beatific but challenging smile.