會議地點：越南胡志明市；時間：2009.12.18 - 2010.01.03；大會主題：傑出的女性修行者與典範=Eminent Buddhist Women
摘要
Thailand has been a Buddhist country for more than 700 years. In spite of the fact that it has the highest percentage of Buddhists of any country in the world, still Thailand cannot claim to be majjhimadesh (the central land) in the true, Buddhist sense of the word, as H.H. the Dalai Lama has often said. To be a central land, it must have a complete four-fold Buddhist society, as established by the Buddha. Unfortunately, Thailand lacks a Bhikkhuni Sangha.
In the previous century, there have been at least two attempts to introduce the Bhikkhuni Sangha to Thailand. The first attempt was by Narin Bhasit (known locally as Narin Klueng), who arranged for the ordination for his two daughters, Sara and Chongdi. But due to Bhasit’s political involvement, the ordination was considered to be a conspiracy against the Sangha and was rejected soon after the attempt was made. This resulted in an order of the Sangharaja (head of the monastic order) on June 18, 1928, forbidding Thai monks to give any level of ordination to women. The full details of this incident have been recorded in my article, “Three Waves of Bhikkhunis in Thailand.”
The next attempt, or what I called the second wave, came with the ordination of Voramai Kabilsingh in 1956, who later became fully ordained in Taiwan in 1971 and thus became the first Thai bhikkhuni in history. Bhikkhuni Voramai Kabilsingh (Ta Tao Fashih) passed away peacefully at the age of 95.
This paper documents Bhikkhuni Voramai Kabilsingh’s life and her work to pave the way for the third wave of bhikkhunis in Thai history. As time passes by, a person’s life may easily become mystified or glamorized. This is an attempt to record her life and work as objectively as possible. I have continually postponed this venture, since it is not easy to be objective in writing about one’s own mother. Still, in trying to understand the history and development of bhikkhunis in different countries, it becomes necessary to record the story of her life, not only as a historian of Buddhism, but also as a dutiful daughter.
在前幾世紀中，比丘尼傳承至少有兩次被引進泰國的機會。第一次是由Narin Bhasit4所引薦，他安排自己的兩名女兒薩拉(Sara)及琮迪(Chongdi)接受俱足戒。但由於Bhasit涉入政治，俱足戒被認為是反抗僧團的陰謀，因此，很快就被抵制。連帶的結果造成Sangharaja在1928年6月18日下令禁止泰國僧眾授與女眾任何戒律。此一事件的相關細節收錄在我的文章“Three Waves of Bhikkhunis in Thailand”中。
