{"id":3992,"date":"2015-02-11T15:27:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T19:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/?p=3992"},"modified":"2015-02-16T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T19:27:54","slug":"thailands-mae-chis-and-the-global-womens-ordination-movement-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2015\/02\/11\/thailands-mae-chis-and-the-global-womens-ordination-movement-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand&#8217;s Mae Chis and the Global Women\u2019s Ordination Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>ISSN 1076-9005<br \/>\nVolume 22, 2015<\/h6>\n<h3>Becoming <em>Bhikkhun\u012b<\/em>? <em>Mae Chis<\/em> and the Global Women\u2019s Ordination Movement<\/h3>\n<p>Lisa J. Battaglia<br \/>\nSamford University<\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s full ordination as Buddhist nuns (P\u0101li: <em>bhikkhun\u012b<\/em>, Sanskrit: <em>bhik\u1e63u\u1e47\u012b<\/em>) has been a contested issue across Buddhist traditions and historical periods. Today, there is a global movement to secure women\u2019s full participation in Buddhist monastic institutions. The present study examines this \u201c<em>bhikkhun\u012b<\/em> movement\u201d in Thailand from the perspective of <em>mae chis<\/em>, Thai Buddhist female renunciates who abide by eight precepts yet do not have full ordination or ordination lineage. Employing an anthropological approach informed by postcolonial critical theory, my research reveals that <em>mae chis<\/em>, women who lead a Buddhist monastic lifestyle characterized by celibate practice and spiritual discipline, are not, on the whole, eager to relinquish their present status, fight against the existing socio-religious order, or pursue <em>bhikkhun\u012b<\/em> ordination. A critical-empathic consideration of <em>mae chis<\/em>\u2019 apparent illiberal subjectivities regarding gender hierarchy, female renunciant identity, and women\u2019s liberation brings to light goals and strategies of the global <em>bhikkhun\u012b<\/em> movement that do not necessarily resonate with the motivations, aims or cultural sensibilities of the Thai white-robed female renunciates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/files\/2015\/02\/JBE-Battaglia_final.pdf\">Read article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 22, 2015 Becoming Bhikkhun\u012b? Mae Chis and the Global Women\u2019s Ordination Movement Lisa J. Battaglia Samford University Women\u2019s full ordination as Buddhist nuns (P\u0101li: bhikkhun\u012b, Sanskrit: bhik\u1e63u\u1e47\u012b) has been a contested issue across Buddhist traditions and historical periods. Today, there is a global movement to secure women\u2019s full participation in Buddhist monastic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2015\/02\/11\/thailands-mae-chis-and-the-global-womens-ordination-movement-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Thailand&#8217;s Mae Chis and the Global Women\u2019s Ordination Movement<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[99217],"tags":[2678,2669,2612,2592,1010],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-volume-22-2015","tag-monasticism","tag-thai-buddhism","tag-thailand","tag-theravada","tag-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5X8HA-12o","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}