Thailand ordered a woman - a first for 800 years!
After ordination on 2001, Sri Lanka, Chatsumarn
Kabilsingh famous Thai academic feminist
(See AR December 2001) By Eric Rommeluère
Varanghana Vanavichayen Chee, 56, former secretary and translator, mother of two children, was made novice (samaneri) to the monastery of Wat Songdhamkalayanee in the suburbs North of Bang kok ¬.
Dhammarakita Samaneri''which is protected by the Dharma (Buddhist law) "this will be his name.
The ceremony was conducted according to the rite by the Theravada bhikkhuni (nun) Sri Lankan Saddha Sushymana in the presence eight other nuns in Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Indonesia. Two Tibetan monks and six Thailand also attended the historic ceremony.
The Thai clergy, trained and Maha Nikaya schools Dhammayut Nikaya of the Theravada tradition believes irremediable extinction of the lineage of nuns within its tradition. Because according to canonical rule, a novice or nun can not be ordained in ptésence other nuns who have received it under the same conditions, thus creating an unbroken link with the first community of the Buddha.
Here we touch on three topics taboo for the Thai Buddhist clergy: the sacrosanct nature of the direct transmission, the impossibility to use the services of members of another tradition that would have kept this transmission and, finally, more or less acknowledged, the ostracism suffered by women.
ban the ordination of women is actually written into the laws governing Thai worship. Against a background of female emancipation, a renaissance of this ordination has recently emerged in South East Asia, mainly in Sri Lanka. Aspirations of the Theravada tradition were then sent to the Chinese nuns who preserved this uninterrupted transmission from the beginning. Ten nuns were thus ordered to Sarnath, India, in 1996, and twenty other in 1998 in Bodhgaya.
Today they are about fifty to have received this ordination is not recognized by the sangha (community) nationals of countries of Theravada tradition.
Dhammarakita Samaneri must perform two years of novitiate before receiving full ordination, "I know there will be opposition," she said, but I know I made the right choice. The event provoked a double response from the authorities. The director of religious affairs department of the Ministry of Education said Dhammarakita Samaneri will not be recognized as a member of the clergy, while indicating that no legal action would be taken against him.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education asked the religious affairs department of a consultancy mission on the ordination of women, its possibilities and its possible influence on religious life in Thailand. He said that any new novices are tolerated as long as they did not claim the Thai monastic system and they will claim not to live in a wat (monastery): "The Thais who have faith in them will join alues activities. But they will not be recognized by the National Sangha. "However, a group of senators voted for the legalization of women's ordination, citing the constitutional equality between men and women.
Eventually, in their own words. religious conflict will arise, and nuns relegated to a zone of lawlessness will create their own school.
Source: News of Religion 37 April 2002 (now the World Religions)
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