Mae Chi

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Buddhist “white nun” in Cambodia

Mae Chi (also Mae Ji, Mae Chee, Thai :แม่ ชี ; pronunciation: [mɛ̂ːt͡ɕʰiː] ; from Thai mae "mother" and the Indian suffix -ji ) are Buddhist women in Thailand who believe in religious celibacy and asceticism have committed. Mae Chi hold 8 or 10 religious vows, usually wear white religious clothing, their hair and eyebrows are shaved. Mae Chi mostly live in communities, often on the temple grounds, but well away from the monastic community . The number of Mae Chi in Thailand is estimated at around 20,000. They are sometimes referred to as "nuns (dressed in white)", although the Thai Sangha hasnot yet recognizedthe ordination of women .

They lead a life on the fringes of society, as they are neither lay women (upasika) nor Buddhist nuns ( bhikkhuni ) or even novices ( samaneri ) . They do not enjoy the prestige or privileges of monks. Mae Chi are traditionally insufficiently educated in both worldly and spiritual areas and usually perform auxiliary duties and low services in the temple area.

history

The transmission line of the Dharma broke off in the nun order of the fully ordained Buddhist nuns ( Bhikkhuni ) of Theravada, therefore the Mae Chi are considered pious lay people who cannot do the rituals and tasks that fully ordained people practice. Mae Chi has been around in Thailand for generations. The French ambassador Simon de la Loubère already described it after his stay in Siam in the 17th century. Older and unmarried women in particular are likely to have visited this community. Despite their number, their social prestige was always extremely low and the way to real Buddhist nun ordination was never open to them, since Siamese society never knew the full ordination of women, which was common in Buddhism from the beginning.

21st century

Mae Chi in Bangkok

At the dawn of the 21st century, the Mae Chi problem could no longer be ignored. In 1969 there was a national meeting of the Mae Chi for the first time on the initiative of the supreme council of the monastic order and the establishment of the "Thai Institute of Mae Chis". The call for better education went hand in hand with the assumption of new tasks in the care of girls and women. The more radical call for full ordination as a nun ( bhikkhuni ) was not long in coming.

Bhikkhuni Dhammananda , recognized as the esteemed academic Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh was a well-known public figure, broke the great taboo by becoming the first Thai woman to receive full ordination as a Theravada nun in Sri Lanka in 2003 . So she consistently continued the pioneering path of her mother Voramai Kabilsingh († June 24, 2003, 95 years old), who had taken bhiksunordination in the Mahayana tradition at the end of the 20th century.

EW Ajahn Sundara (Siladhara)

Even if this attempt to introduce the bhikkhun order in Thailand, as well as the attempts to improve the position of the Mae Chi through parliamentary means, by no means meet with undivided approval, a spirit of optimism is clearly noticeable in Mae Chi circles . They receive support not only from organizations such as the Buddhist women's network Sakyadhita , but also from Western Buddhists and occasionally from Thai monks .

In the Thai forest tradition ( Forest Sangha ), which is connected to the traditional values ​​of simplicity and meditation and made famous by the great innovator Ajahn Chah , the Mae Chi are dressed in white anagarika (eight vow nuns) and in brown (like the monks ) Siladhara (Ten Vows Nuns) differentiated. In the forest tradition, they enjoy practically the same training as the monks and, as far as the Thai tradition allows, enjoy a status similar to that of the monks, without attacking the delicate taboo itself. In particular for "Westerners" in Thailand and for the monastic communities in the west (e.g. Amaravati in the English county of Hertfordshire ), the Siladhara are regarded as full-fledged nuns.

The tensions between Western ideas and needs on the one hand and conservative attitudes of the Thai Sangha on the other led to conflicts in the western monasteries of the forest tradition in the course of 2009, which demanded a solution. With the submission of a five-point program, which the nuns had to sign, an attempt to clarify was made on November 19, 2009.

With some of the nuns and the lay community, regulations such as the honoring of an older nun for a younger monk and the definitive exclusion of the possibility of further development for women to the status of a bhikkhuni encounter a lack of understanding.

The date of the 'five point program' can be seen in the context of another nuns' conflict in the western forest tradition. Almost at the same time, on November 1st, 2009, the world-famous Australian monk Ajahn Brahm (Ajahn Brahmavamso) and his monastic community in Australia were expelled from the forest tradition of Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Brahm took part in the ordination of four Siladhara nuns leading bhikkunis in Perth on October 22, 2009 and did not bow to the hastily convened tribunal in Bangkok on November 1.

Since then, a petition has been circulating to the decisive monastic bodies of the Thai forest tradition to no longer oppose the bhikkhuni ordination.

literature

  • Nancy J. Barnes: Buddhist Women and the Nuns' Order in Asia. In: Engaged Buddhism. Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. State University of New York, Albany 1996, pp. 259-294.
  • Steven Collins, Justin McDaniel: Buddhist 'nuns' (mae chi) and the teaching of Pali in contemporary Thailand. In: Modern Asian Studies , Volume 44, No. 6, November 2010, pp. 1373-1408.
  • Monica Lindberg Falk: Making Fields of Merit. Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. NIAS Press, Copenhagen 2007.
  • Caroline Starkey, Emma Tomalin: Gender, Buddhism, and Education. Dhamma and Social transformation Within the Theravada Tradition. In: Gender, Religion and Education in a Chaotic Postmodern World. Springer, Dordrecht 2013, pp. 55–72.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Collins, McDaniel: Buddhist 'nuns'. 2010, p. 1384.
  2. ^ Lindberg Falk: Making Fields of Merit. 2007, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Joanna Cook: Meditation in Modern Buddhism. Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 5.
  4. ↑ "Where We Are Now" statement by the western Forest Sangha ( memento of the original from August 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / forestsangha.org
  5. ↑ Ven's blog. Sujato, monk in the Australian forest tradition
  6. ↑ [bhikkhuni.net/Perth%20Ordination.asp Bhikkuni-Ordination in Perth 2009] (page no longer available, March 5, 2014)

Web links