‘BLEEDING’ WOMEN AND ‘WHAT MERIT REALLY MEANS’: On the issue of ‘Man-only’ public temples, fully ordained (Bikkhuni) Thai nuns, the thriving nunnery, Wat Nirodharam and an exclusive interview with a Thai Bikkhuni nun (Scenes from Chiang Mai Part II)

“Bikkhuni Pratimoksha is highly important.”
–Phra Ajahn Nandayanee, Bikkhuni and founder of Wat Nirodharam

‘Buddha never taught that ultimately men and women are different mentally but that the physical elements are empty of any inherent nature. In that respect, there should not be any real differentiation in the treatment and status of men and women.” –Bikkhuni Sila Samsvari

“My recent visit to Nirodharam — meaning a place to end suffering — reconfirmed my belief that state discrimination is fruitless. What counts is public faith and there’s no stopping female ordination when people welcome female monks with open arms.” –Sanitsuda Ekacha

Introduction

For Tārā day today,  here is the second instalment in a series of short posts and photos of recent Buddhist pilgrimage travels in Chiang Mai, North Thailand and South-East Asia (first post here. The second article focuses on the fully ordained Bikkhuni nuns in Thailand, their struggle to attain full ordination and equality within the Thai Buddhist tradition, the  ‘men-only’ public temples (Wats), and the status and daily lives of Thai Bikkhunis, with an exclusive interview and visit to one of the main Bikkhuni centres in Northern Thailand, Wat Nirodharam. I was able to interview a recently ordained Bikkhuni nun, Sila Samsvari there and ask her about her ordination and her own thoughts on the ‘men-only’ temples and practice as a woman. Unlike monks, women who want to live monastic lives must support themselves. However, since they are not legally recognised as monastics, white-robed practitioners (mae chee) must pay for their own education.

One of the things that struck me most about my visit and meeting at Nirodharam, was how peaceful and blissful it was. The huge white Buddha statue was one of the most magnificent I have ever seen, with a stunning face and presence. The chedi/stupa was also inspiring to circumambulate. An authentic sense of peace, bliss and serenity emanated from the environs. As the Thai woman, states in one of the articles cited below, even though men have done their utmost to restrict and make difficult life and study as a Buddhist woman, the women themselves with their courage, practice and perseverance ‘show us what merit really looks like.’ Unswayed by the gross misogyny, inequality and lack of support, they continue to live pure and meaningful Buddhist lives, even travelling to Sri Lanka to take full ordination there.

As the Bikkhuni I interviewed said to me: ‘Buddha never taught that ultimately men and women are different mentally but that the physical elements are empty of any inherent nature. In that respect, there should not be any real differentiation in the treatment and status of men and women.” Quite. The karma of patriarchal male treatment of women, girls will surely reap a horrendous result. Thankfully women on the whole are not taking up violent arms against men, their institutions and structures. Leading by example with wisdom, courage, femininity, compassion and love is what merit really looks like. Something that no amount of money, titles, prestige, followers and so on can buy or compare with.  As the Buddha himself said, it is easy to be kind, generous, patient and virtuous when all is going well for oneself. It is not easy to be so when things are very challenging and lonely. However, the practitioner who is able to maintain practice and those mind states in such circumstances is by far the genuine practitioner with the most merit and realisations.

I left the nunnery feeling a deep and positive sense of how female Buddhist nuns can live and practice, in a similar way to how I felt after I left Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, and uplifted and inspired by what women can do when they put their minds to it and come together to move beyond the restrictions and prejudices of sexist religious men (and their enablers) despite all the obstacles put in their way by those same men. That is what merit really means and looks like.

For more previous research and interview with a Tibetan Gelongma on the issue of fully ordained nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, see here.  For more on the sexist, patriarchal and ‘puritanical’ censorship and restrictions on women’s bodies within Buddhist cultures, see here.

May this article be of benefit in raising awareness of female practitioners in Thailand and putting an end to inequalities and out-dated sexist ideologies that label women’s bodies as ‘impure’ globally.

Music? For the Bikkhunis: Phra Khatha Chin Banchon Thai chanting and Sisters are Doing It for Themselves by Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin, and for all us menstruating women with wombs of blood and ovaries, Happy and Bleeding by PJ Harvey and Only Women Bleed by Etta James.

Written by Adele Tomlin, 20th December 2023.

‘Men-only’ public temples in Chiang Mai  and the ‘issue’ of ‘dirty’ menstruating women

Much as I love Thailand and their stunning temples and friendly people, one of the things I was surprised (and saddened) to discover on my first trip to Chiang Mai was the presence of several ‘male-only’ entry public temples. The publicly announced reason given in writing (and announced over speakers) was that as women menstruate it is seen as dirty and corrupting the temples. As patriarchal and misogynist a reason as that is, even non-menstruating women were not allowed entry. However, it was deemed quite alright for male tourists from all over the world, often with zero connection to Buddhism (or even respect for it) to walk in and out as they pleased while the women watched on bemused (and even offended).

Considering that in many ‘goddess’ and ‘female-friendly’ religions and cultures, menstrual blood is considered sacred and a life-giving force (even biologists agree that), the fact that ‘religious’ men decided at some point in history that the menstrual blood of their own mothers, and thus women’s bodies are ‘dirty’ and ‘impure’ is a testament to the fact of how patriarchal and ‘women-hating’ religious male cultures can (and have) become. As Louise Bourgeois painted in her powerful artwork ‘Birth’, women’s bodies are more than just a costume/appearance people can put on and take off at will:

I spoke to a local Thai woman (who wanted to remain anonymous) who worked as a tour guide at the temple and asked her what she thought of the rule? She explained to me that is was part of the Lanna Thai cultural beliefs and that local people felt strongly about it. When I asked who had made that a ‘belief’ was it women or men, she did not seem to know. However, she told me that the abbot of the silver temple, a Thai monk wanted to change the rule but was met with very strong resistance to it by local people and so was unable to do so.  That was important and interesting to understand as I also wondered what the Buddhist monks thought of the rule, which is not present in any Buddhist Sutra teaching. Again the argument of cultural norm is used by people to justify patriarchal, sexist norms in a society. For example, European cultures used to also think women were too ‘stupid’ to vote or go to university, and that was a cultural norm at the time. However, like religious men wanting to stick their tongue into children’s mouths, some cultural norms are in dire need of change or even a total elimination.  Nonetheless, it was good to know that this rule was not coming from Buddhist monks per se, but from locals.

The unequal status of Thai Buddhist nuns. white-robed practitioners and women pushing for change

This discovery led to my doing some research online into the status of nuns and women in Buddhist Thailand, and I came across this 2022 article in the Bangkok Post regarding the unfair and unequal status of nuns and female Buddhist practitioners in Thailand. 

A 1928 proclamation by Thailand’s all-male Buddhist Sangha Supreme Council forbids female ordination, frustrating many daughters and their parents because no equivalent merit can be earned by women. Historians say bhikkhunis flourished for 1,000 years in India and Sri Lanka but Islam and war caused them to almost disappear. First, unlike monks, nuns do not receive state support and do not have full and equal access to Buddhist educational institutions:

“A group of white-robed, head-shaven nuns or mae chee from the Thai Nuns Institute met the House sub-committee on Buddhism affairs last month to voice the problems which female monastics face.

The clergy often use the existence of white-robed nuns as a reason for not allowing the ordination of female monks, or Bhikkhuni. They said women could pursue religious practice as nuns without being ordained. Yet the nuns do not get any support for their spiritual practice and Buddhist academic pursuits. Without support, many mae chee who live in temples need to do temple chores such as cooking, cleaning, or selling flowers and incense in exchange for room and board.

Monks, meanwhile, enjoy high social status and receive full support from society and the government. Apart from cash donations, monks receive free education, medical services, and transport.

Nuns have been allowed to study with monks in Buddhist universities since 1963. Despite the lack of support, many nuns have completed Parian Nine, the highest level of religious studies. Some have even become teachers at Buddhist universities. While monks with the Parian Nine degrees receive monthly salaries from the government, nuns or nun teachers with the same academic achievements do not receive he same support. Neither are nuns allowed to apply for scholarships at Buddhist universities, said Mae Chee Natthahatai, who has both the Parian Nine and doctorate degrees.”

What does this mean for Thai nuns and Buddhist women ? Another Bangkok Post article Nuns Show Us What Merit really Looks Like by leading writer on such issues, Sanitsuda Ekachai says:

“In truth, these responses are mere disguises for gender discrimination in the clergy.  Thai Theravada Buddhism does not only shut the ordination door on women but also punishes monks who dares challenge the no-female-ordination rule. This means that Sri Lanka — also a predominantly Theravada country — has become a centre for Thai women seeking ordination.  The elder monks want to stop that too and have asked the Foreign Ministry not to grant visas for Sri Lankan monks, preventing them from entering Thailand to ordain women. The Foreign Ministry meekly complies.”

As a 2023 academic study in Thailand states: “Although there have been calls for rights in getting ordained as Bhikkhuni by adhering to the Vinaya (discipline) and international laws, nothing has come into effect.”

One recent story cited the example of an American Thai Buddhist nun, Bikkhuni Lee, who was met with male violence for her activity that supported the full ordination of Thai nuns:

In a 2017 interview, Naomi says: “I built a temple three times in Thailand. We got shut down two times and the third time we were arsoned.” Naomi said a gang of Thai men are still threatening her and her “temple” in Rayong, a tourist-friendly beach town situated 144 kilometers from Bangkok.

More than 300,000 monks and novices live in Thailand’s 30,000 temples. There are hundreds of unrecognized Thai bikkhunis, but Ms. Naomi is the only American Buddhist nun residing in Thailand.

Another American known as Venerable Pannavati, who claims she’s the world’s only black Buddhist nun, often visits Thailand to help Naomi ordain nuns. Pannavati, 68, a thrice-married mother, is co-founder and Buddhist abbot of Heartwood Refuge, an interfaith center in Hendersonville, North Carolina:

Venerable Dhammananda, a Thai national, became a nun after being ordained in 2003 in Sri Lanka where the Theravada tradition was revived. Formerly known as Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh when she was a Buddhist philosophy lecturer at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, she divorced her husband, became celibate and explained her religious decisions to her children.  Dhammananda now heads an unrecognized Theravada temple near Bangkok. Her Thai mother established the temple in 1971 after ordaining in Taiwan which allows, similar to China, Mahayana Buddhist female ordination. Dhammananda’s Thai grandmother also ordained overseas: