Questions of Ordination Legitimacy for the Newly Ordained: Theravada Bhikkuni in Thailand

Tomomi Ito

After the Bhikkhuni Sangha ceased to exist in Sri Lanka in the 11th century, Theravada Buddhist women were told to abandon their hopes of becoming fully ordained as bhikkhuni. For the next 1,000 years, people were convinced that no woman could become ordained as a bhikkhun when no Bhikkhuni Sangha existed. That assumption derived from the garudhamma, the eight rules that were given by the Buddha to Mahapajapati Gotami, the first bhikkhuni, as the conditions for women’s admission to the order. The eight garudhamma included a rule stipulating that a bhikkhuni candidate be ordained by both Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni Sanghas after a two-year probationary period. The first essential task for the restoration of the disrupted Theravada bhikkhuni order is to refute that common presumption.

Concerned Buddhist women established international networks for discussing the reintroduction of the Bhikkhuni Sangha in the Theravada and Tibetan traditions, in which no bhikkhuni ordination lineage currently exists. Through international collaboration, restoration of the Bhikkhuni Sangha was realized in Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism. In 1996 in Sarnath, monastics of the Korean order held a historical ordination ceremony for ten women from Sri Lanka. In 1998 in Bodhgaya, at an ordination ceremony was hosted by the Foguangshan Buddhist order of Taiwan, another twenty Sri Lankan women were ordained. The Bhikkhuni Sangha has been developing steadily in Sri Lanka; at present it has several hundred members.

The ordination of Sri Lankans stimulated Thai women, who follow the Theravada tradition, to become ordained as sramaneri and bhikkhuni. During the course of my last research in Thailand in March 2007, I was able to trace 34 Thai women who have been ordained as sramaneri. Among those Thai sramaneri, seven have been ordained as bhikkhuni as of July 2007. However, some of the Thai sramaneri and bhikkhuni have found it difficult to remain in the yellow robes. As far I could ascertain in May 2007, there were 11 sramaneri and bhikkhuni wearing the robes of a mae chee or upasika. The difficulties of remaining in yellow robes are inseparably linked to the question of legitimacy of their ordination.

In this paper, I would like to explore the notion of ordination validity based on the debates and experiences of nuns in Thailand, where bhikkhuni ordination lineage was never transmitted until very recently. First, the paper will examine Thai Buddhist debates on “right ordination,” which has virtually the same meaning as “right procedure” of the ordination ceremony. Second, the paper will consider the ordination methods that Thai bhikkhuni choose for their ordinations and the questions of validity raised after their ordination. Third, the paper will discuss the bases for legitimate ordination, suggesting that legitimacy of ordination is not supported solely by some “correct” procedure, but can also be firmly determined by authority and tradition.