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.