Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?

The third millennium started with a bang in Thai Buddhist circles when a former philosophy professor was ordained a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. The Thai Buddhist hierarchy does not recognize nuns, and has, in fact, forbidden monks to ordain women. Thailand accommodates some 300,000 Buddhist monks – a...

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Main Author:	Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2003
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/1/1.pdf

id	ukm-3128
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-31282016-12-14T06:33:41Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/ Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer? Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn, The third millennium started with a bang in Thai Buddhist circles when a former philosophy professor was ordained a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. The Thai Buddhist hierarchy does not recognize nuns, and has, in fact, forbidden monks to ordain women. Thailand accommodates some 300,000 Buddhist monks – and some 10,000 white-clad Buddhist women, called "mae chis". The social and spiritual status of these women has traditionally been extremely low and they are regarded as laywomen. In the English literature, they are confusingly called "nuns", hence the reluctance to use the same category for these newly ordained women. The traditional Sanskrit/Pali terms for ordained women are "bhiksuni" and "bhikkhuni", which are not well-known in Thailand, as these persons have usually been visiting Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean or Tibetan "bhiksunis". There is simply no category of genuine "nuns" in Thai society. Several women have been ordained novice nuns in either Sri Lankaor Thailand by Sri Lankan nuns after the trail-blazing act of the first Thai woman. This article argues that if this trend of ordaining women is allowed to continue, the Thai Buddhist "woman monks" will have to create a completely new category, identity and space for themselves as genuine "nuns" or bhikkhunis. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2003-07 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/1/1.pdf Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn, (2003) Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer? AKADEMIKA, 63 (2). ISSN 0126-5008 http://www.ukm.my/~penerbit/akademika/arkib.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	The third millennium started with a bang in Thai Buddhist circles when a former philosophy professor was ordained a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. The Thai Buddhist hierarchy does not recognize nuns, and has, in fact, forbidden monks to ordain women. Thailand accommodates some 300,000 Buddhist monks – and some 10,000 white-clad Buddhist women, called "mae chis". The social and spiritual status of these women has traditionally been extremely low and they are regarded as laywomen. In the English literature, they are confusingly called "nuns", hence the reluctance to use the same category for these newly ordained women. The traditional Sanskrit/Pali terms for ordained women are "bhiksuni" and "bhikkhuni", which are not well-known in Thailand, as these persons have usually been visiting Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean or Tibetan "bhiksunis". There is simply no category of genuine "nuns" in Thai society. Several women have been ordained novice nuns in either Sri Lankaor Thailand by Sri Lankan nuns after the trail-blazing act of the first Thai woman. This article argues that if this trend of ordaining women is allowed to continue, the Thai Buddhist "woman monks" will have to create a completely new category, identity and space for themselves as genuine "nuns" or bhikkhunis.
format	Article
author	Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn,
spellingShingle	Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn, Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
author_facet	Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn,
author_sort	Marja-Leena Heikkila-Horn,
title	Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
title_short	Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
title_full	Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
title_fullStr	Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
title_full_unstemmed	Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
title_sort	woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?
publisher	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2003
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3128/1/1.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:37:55Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:37:55Z
_version_	1777405395053051904

Woman monks: an anomaly or a misnomer?

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