Thai nuns still yearning for recognition
Anasuya Sanyal
23 Jun 2013

It is a rock star welcome in Bangkok for the world's highest ranking Buddhist nun from Japan. But all the excitement over Shinso Ito's visit contrasts with the status of nuns in Thailand.


A Buddhist nun offers food to a Thai drug addict patient at a monastery (AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)

BANGKOK: It is a rock star welcome in Bangkok for the world's highest ranking Buddhist nun from Japan. But all the excitement over Shinso Ito's visit contrasts with the status of nuns in Thailand.

And some women of the cloth want to change this.

Thailand's Buddhist leaders are all male monks and abbots and despite the millions of female faithful, it is illegal for women to be ordained as fully fledged monks, equivalent in stature and all else to monks.

Thailand does have a female spiritual tradition - they wear white robes and are called "mae chee".

But many Thais think that women should not be part of the male only monastic tradition so important for the country's Buddhists.

Fully ordained Buddhist nuns are not legally recognised in Thailand, as they are in Myanmar and Sri Lanka - a sign of continuing gender inequality women still encounter among the varying Buddhist traditions.

For Bhikkuni Dhammananda the path to becoming a nun has been a long one.

With no tradition of Buddhists nuns in Thailand, she had to be ordained in Sri Lanka as Thailand's first ever Theravada nun.

But she's hoping that will change.

Bhikkuni Dhammananda, Abbess of Songdhammakalyani Temple, said: "That's why I became very serious in my research, to find out that Buddha also gave ordination to women. But it is only in our country that this has never arrived... We are starting something new for Thai culture, but (female) ordination has always been there; ordination has always been there in the history of Buddhism."

Bhikkuni Dhammanda says she will continue to support the ordination of other nuns in Thailand but the law must be changed by politicians at the government level and not at the temple.

Mae Chee Sansanee, on the other hand, left a high powered career and founded the Sathira Dhammasathan meditation centre.

She encourages young girls to join her spiritual community for short periods of time, just like boys do.

She said: "For me after 33 years as a nun, the first 7 years I spent learning from teachers. This is essential, for nuns to get opportunity from monks.

But after we have developed and refined our mind, we can then create a community of nuns that is self-sufficient. And through our good deeds, we gain reverence and acceptance from society. "

But despite her popularity, she says she accepts her status and won't try to campaign for a change in the law.

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