Thai monks and lay nuns (mae chii) in urban health care

Abstract

In the process of defining their identity in relation to other social institutions, Thai monks and increasingly, lay nuns (mae chii), have been adopting social and community roles in rural areas. Studies conducted in the early 1980s and repeated more recently indicate that these can be adapted to suit urban situations such as paramedical roles in hospitals in which mae chii may prove more effective than monks as counsellors. But although the young scholar monks whose views were solicited were mostly open to such roles on the part of the mae chii, the majority were opposed to their full ordination as bhikkhuni.