Dhammananda Bhikkhuni

Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni is the first fully ordained Theravadin nun in Thailand. As a lay person and a monastic, she has worked tirelessly for more than forty years to establish the Theravada bhikkhuni lineage in Thailand so that women may become fully ordained. In 2019 the BBC named her to its list of 100 most influential and important women in the world for her pioneering role in reviving the Theravāda Bhikkhunī Sangha in Thailand and Asia.

Formerly known as Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, she was a professor of Buddhist studies at Thammasat University for three decades. She received her Master’s Degree in Canada and her PhD in India. She has authored more than 100 books including several written in English. As abbess of Songdhammakalyani Temple, an all-female monastery founded by her mother more than sixty years ago, she devotes her time to educating and training younger women. Website: songdhammakalyani.com

Ven. Dhammananda & Bhikkhunis in Thailand

Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni is the abbess and spiritual leader of Songdhammakalyani Temple, an all-female monastery in Nakon Pathom, Thailand, located about 56 kilometers west of Bangkok. In 2003, Venerable Dhammananda was the first Thai woman to receive full ordination in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Prior to her there were no female monastics in the history of Thailand. Over twenty years have passed since Venerable Dhammananda’s ordination and there are now 270 ordained women in Thailand.

Venerable Dhammananda spent years as an academic researching the original texts to confirm that the Buddha ordained women in his own time. “The Buddha,” she said, “was the first feminist because he was the first religious leader in the world to acknowledge that women and men are equal spiritually. When the Buddha gave permission for women to be ordained in his lifetime, he declared that women can be enlightened. There is no other religion before Buddhism which so clearly recognized the spiritual potential of women.”

The Buddha not only elevated the status of women by recognizing them as capable of enlightenment, but he also confirmed their participation as ordained members of the fourfold Sangha. Near the end of his life, the Buddha spoke about the importance of the fourfold sangha, also known as the fourfold assembly which consists of: bhikkhus (fully ordained Buddhist monks), and bhikkhunīs (fully ordained Buddhist nuns), laymen and laywomen. The word
Saṅgha is a Sanskrit and Pāli word that means "community." Venerable Dhammananda explains the situation this way. “You could say in my country that one leg of the chair—the fully ordained nuns—was missing. I needed to bring back this fourth leg.” Venerable Dhammananda has dedicated her life to restoring women their rightful place in Buddhism.

Venerable Dhammananda has always emphasized the importance of the Bhikkhunī Sangha over the individual. It is not enough for a woman to ordain and then lead a solitary practice. She has said that an individual bhikkhunī, regardless of how admirable her practice is, will eventually pass away. A thriving Saṅgha ensures that Buddhism will survive through the ages.