Dhammananda | |
|---|---|
ธัมมนันทา | |
 Dhammananda Bhikkhuni 2020 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Chatsumarn Kabilsingh 1944 (age 80–81) |
| Nationality | Thai |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Monastic name | Songdhammakalyani Bhikkhuni Arama |
| Senior posting | |
| Present post | Abbess |
| Website | http://www.thaibhikkhunis.org/eng2014/index.html |
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni (Thai:ธัมมนันทา), bornChatsumarn Kabilsingh (Thai:ฉัตรสุมาลย์ กบิลสิงห์) orChatsumarn Kabilsingh Shatsena (Thai:ฉัตรสุมาลย์ กบิลสิงห์ ษัฏเสน; 1944), is a Thaibhikkhuni ("Buddhist nun"). On 28 February 2003,[1] Kabilsingh received full monastic ordination as a bhikkhuni of theTheravada tradition inSri Lanka.[2][3][4] She isAbbess ofSongdhammakalyani Monastery, the only temple in Thailand where there are bhikkhunis.[5]
Chatsumarn Kabilsingh was born in 1944[6] toVoramai Kabilsingh and Kokiat Shatsena. Her mother, Voramai, also called Ta Tao Fa Tzu (d. 2003), was ordained as bhikkhuni in aDharmaguptaka lineage inTaiwan in 1971 – the first modern Thai bhikkhuni.[7][8]Songdhammakalyani means "temple where women uphold the Dharma" and it is located inNakhon Pathom nearBangkok.[9]
Chatsumarn received Buddhist instruction and training along with the nuns.[10] She says that her father, Kokiat, was "the first Thai man I knew who strongly supported the revival of theBhikkhuniSangha in Thailand."[11] Unusual for Thai women, Chatsumarn received a higher education. After high school, she received her B.A. inPhilosophy from Visva Bharati University, her M.A. in Religion fromMcMaster University in Canada, and her Ph.D. in Buddhism fromMagadh University in India.[12] She married, has three sons and six grandchildren. She taught for 27 years atThammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, in the Department of Philosophy and Religion.[13][14] She is a well-known author of many books on contemporary issues in Asian Buddhism; many were published before herordination and are under her birth name, Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh.
She has often said that she knew she would become amonastic in the Buddhist tradition at some point in her life; she was just waiting for the right time. That time came in 2000 when she took early retirement from Thammasat University and received theBodhisattva Precepts from theFo Guang Shan order in Taiwan. In 2001, she took hersāmaṇerī ordination in Sri Lanka from R. Saddha Sumana Bhikkhuni and T. Dhammaloka Bhikkhu. In 2003, she was ordained a full bhikkhuni in Sri Lanka, the first Thai woman to be ordained in a Theravada monastic lineage, as Dhammananda.[13][14] Her ordination lineage is Syamopali from Dambulla chapter. She currently resides at the Songdhammakalyani Monastery in the Muang District, Nakhonpathom province, Thailand.[15] Since her ordination, Dhammananda has written more than 100 books, designed to educate the public about various issues related toThai Buddhism, including the place of women.[14]
Prior to her ordination, Dr. Kabilsingh wrote several books, includingThai Women in Buddhism (1991) which discusses the place of Thai Buddhist women in the context of Thai society, including those who choose to becomemaechi. Both as a layperson and a monastic, she has worked tirelessly to reestablish the Theravāda bhikkhuni lineage in Thailand so that women may become fully ordained monastics. She has encountered resistance from both laymen and monks in Thailand who believe female monastics are illegal and a corruption. Her work has caused some controversy in Thailand,[16] although she receives much support from a growing number of Western Buddhist women.
In 1984, Kabilsingh started publishingYasodhara: The Newsletter on International Buddhist Women's Activities, available in almost forty countries.[17] Some articles from theNewsletter are availableonline.[18] A few years later in 1991, Kabilsingh organized the first international conference of Buddhist women held in Bangkok, Thailand.[19]
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni may be considered aBuddhist modernist writer, along with social activists and reformers such asSulak Sivaraksa,A. T. Ariyaratne,Thích Nhất Hạnh, the14th Dalai Lama, andBuddhadasa. There are several reasons for this designation. Most obvious is her work on the place of women in modern Asian Buddhism, especially the Theravāda tradition in Thailand. She writes/speaks about issues generally thought to constitute "sociallyEngaged Buddhism" such as Buddhism and nature/ecology/environmental issues, Buddhism and poverty, Feminism and Buddhism, prostitution (in Thailand), and Buddhism and education (lay and monastic).
While Dhammananda has a somewhat global approach as evidenced by founding an international newsletter or hosting an international conference, she has repeatedly stated that most problems in Thailand must be solved by the Thai people without the "help" of outsiders, including Western Buddhists. The solutions she offers are generally down-to-earth, concrete, and practical with an occasional hint of idealism shared by other Buddhist modernists. She makes clear acknowledgments about both the weaknesses and strengths of the current ThaiSangha; her writing advocates serious reform for monastic and lay Buddhists, not the least of which is the reestablishment of the Bhikkhuni order. Nantawan Boonprasat-Lewis comments "Kabilsingh thus advocates for the Sangha to be more involved in providing spiritual guidance to the laity and deal with their own fear of having women be equal to men. The social crisis, she says, is greater than this fear and needs the cooperation and involvement of all, regardless ofgender, class, andethnicity."[20]
In 2014, Dhammananda Bhikkhuni was appointed as Pavattini by a Sri Lankan preceptor during a group ordination for women monks inSongkhla, Thailand.[21]
She was recognised as one of the100 Women (BBC) of 2019.[22]
I do not choose to be ordained because I want people to recognise me. I did it because I want to carry on the heritage of the Lord Buddha. I am trying to revive the four pillars of Buddhism—bhikkus, bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen—that will sustain the religion into the future. I don't mind if some people reserve different opinions about bhikkhunis. The public will be the ones to judge our worth.[23]
I would be satisfied if I could serve as a refuge for women. I am not aiming at a big market. I don't think Thai women will rise up and get ordained en masse. A monastic path is not a comfortable lifestyle. I am thinking of a small religious community which helps women develop their own spirituality and contribute something to society.[23]
I know there is some resistance out there. It is not my intention to stick out and provoke anybody. I will try to honour everyone. I will try to be a supatipanno, to be a female monk with good conduct. Time will tell. If society believes this is a worthy role, then people will support it and consider it another alternative for women.[23]
I laud Chatsumarn Kabilsingh's efforts to educate her countrymen about both the history and the plight of Buddhist women in their own country. Her efforts to demonstrate to them that Buddhist teachings do not support their treatment of the Buddhist women in their midst is even more important. Perhaps they will listen to what a Buddhist woman from their own country, who is well educated in Buddhist thought, has to say about women in Buddhism. She cannot be dismissed as just another Westerner criticizing Asian culture.
— Rita M. Gross, foreword toThai Women in Buddhism[24]
Dr. Kabilsingh is a very devoted lady who wholeheartedly works for the good cause of women's liberation in a Buddhist manner.
LikeAyya Khema in Sri Lanka, [Chatsumarn Kabilsingh] believes that Buddhist women should have the opportunity to fulfill their spiritual aspirations completely, and that is only possible if they can be ordained asbhikshuni. For it is the institution of thesangha that would provide women with real security and the opportunity to win the respect of the Thai laity. Dr. Kabilsingh does not foresee asangha ofbhikshuni who would devote their time exclusively to meditation, however, or to religious observances.Bhikshuni would be able to work to solve some of the country’s and the world’s horrendous social problems, with the force of the venerablesangha behind them...Bhikshuni in their own "nunneries", could educated girls and women (as Venerable Voramai Kabilsingh does at Watra Songdharma Kalyani) and help and counsel women with family or personal problems. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, like her mother the Venerable Voramai and like the Venerable Ayya Khema in Sri Lanka, believes thatbhikshuni should engage in social services and that they will want to.
— Christopher S. Queen,Engaged Buddhism in Asia[26]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)She had to be ordained in Colombo, Sri Lanka...
...Venerable Voramai or Ta Tao Fa Tzu, became the first fully ordained Thai woman in the Mahayana lineage in Taiwan and turned their family home into a monastery.
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