Introduction
Recently, we have seen an increasing number of publications, mostly of an ethnographic nature, describing and discussing the significant religious roles and achievements of Thai Buddhist women, not only in the field of Buddhist education, and with regard to monastic roles, but also in terms of their roles as accomplished Buddhist practitioners.Footnote 1 This paper examines changes occurring in the status and position of women in Thai Buddhist practice. Elsewhere I have described and discussed the recent phenomenon of the widespread veneration of female Buddhist practitioners which is taking place on an increasing scale.Footnote 2 Another novelty that reflects this widespread veneration is that more and more hagiographical texts of female saintsFootnote 3 are being produced and more widely circulated, in particular on the internet but also as printed books (which are very often given away for free). At the same time, stūpas (relic containers), which specifically signify and celebrate the awakening potential of women in present times, have been erected in the last 15 years. Before then these edifices had only been built for the veneration of male monks who are believed to have achieved spiritual perfection.Footnote 4 Even though these new developments in the venerational practices of female practitioners are occurring only on a modest scale—at least when compared with established and equivalent venerational practices of male saints—they indicate that, even though in many respects they are still marginalized, women appear to be gaining an increasing space in contemporary Thai Buddhism as widely revered practitioners, role models, and teachers of Buddhism.Footnote 5
Undoubtedly, in recent decades women's religious roles have become much more powerful in shaping the Thai Buddhist landscape. Although there are a variety of reasons for this change in Thai women's religious roles, one major trend is that an increasing number of women are widely revered because of their spiritual achievements which are believed, and more forcefully acknowledged, to be on a par with those of monks. Furthermore, scholars have demonstrated that status as a meditation practitioner can improve significantly the status of women in Thai Buddhism.Footnote 6 In the following discussion I focus on one of the first widely acknowledged female saints of modern Thai Buddhism, Khun Mae Bunruean Tongbuntoem (1895–1964). Khun Mae Bunruean has obtained her increasing reputation by the advanced meditative achievements which her followers believe she possessed, her altruism, and her teaching skills.
Given the considerable number of followers and hagiographical texts that have appeared in the last 40 years or so since her death in 1964 and her religious significance in Thai Buddhism, it is perhaps surprising that Mae Bunruean's biography and her impact on Thai Buddhism have not received scholarly attention before. Moreover, there are a number of particularities in her hagiographies and veneration. However, it must be emphasized that Mae Bunruean is not the only woman in contemporary Thai Buddhism who is highly revered by a large number of followers. In fact, previous research has revealed that there are many of these women, the majority of whom have still not been appreciated by scholarship on Thai Buddhism.Footnote 7 It is particularly regrettable that until quite recently the lives and socio-religious impact of these women have not been considered in the context of scholarly discussion on gender inequalities and the debates surrounding the current attempts to revive the vanished Theravada bhikkhunī order in Thailand.Footnote 8 This is not to imply that these inequalities do not exist or that female sainthood—which is increasingly believed to be possible for women in present times—would resolve the issues of reintroducing the Theravada nun order. It is certainly the case that Thai Buddhist women are often perceived to be hierarchically inferior to men in terms of belief and practice. In an impressive ethnographic study, Joanna Cook has recently shown that emic views on gender hierarchy might significantly differ from etic views. She argues that for mae chis (white-clad women who shave their hair and keep eight to ten Buddhist precepts) in the monastery she worked in, ‘the rationale of monastic practice is never understood in terms of resistance to male authority or the equality of women vis-à-vis men’. She also suggests that:
. . . the hierarchy of gender prevalent in the monastery [she lived and worked in] is effectively sidestepped by mae chee [mae chis] and monks through ascetic practice. They thereby employ the ideals of soteriological inclusiveness, without engaging in either institutional androcentrism or ascetic misogyny. While such views are present in the monastery and reflected in spatial separation, hierarchical duty and domestic performance, they are understood as irrelevant to the non-gendered narrative of spiritual achievement.Footnote 9
Even though these statements are based on the study of only one monastic community in Thailand, they suggest the complexity of gender relations in present-day Thai society for which scholars have so far failed to provide concordant explanations. Even scholars who have studied outstanding female practitioners of Thai Buddhism have not placed the accounts of these women's lives and their veneration in the forefront of academic discussions about gender equality. Because of their very complexity I do not have the space to consider these issues of gender relations either. However, what I do want to suggest here is that more scrutiny of outstanding female practitioners will help us to gain a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multifarious roles of women in current Thai Buddhism. I must agree with Steven Collins and Justin McDaniel who, when talking about a specific group of Thai Buddhist women, the mae chis, state:
The idea of a mae chi's life as ‘beautiful,’ with meticulous and inspiring pedagogy, sophisticated and meditative expertise as goals and values per se, with intrinsic virtue as well as instrumental value in reducing suffering and leading to nirvana, has not been emphasized enough in the existing literature, which tends too often to concentrate on the issue of bhikkhunī ordination, and more generally to focus on mae chi's hardships (which are often many), and on discrimination in the Thai ecclesia.Footnote 10
I want to emphasize though that my purpose is not to reconstruct Mae Bunruean's life ‘as it was’, but to describe and analyse the ways in which her life has been depicted and understood in relation to issues of gender. I use hagiographical accounts of her as a focal point to unravel and examine Thai beliefs in relation to female sainthood in present-day Thai Buddhism. Thus my objective is not to attempt to identify ‘historical truth’ but rather to undertake a ‘hagiographical analysis’, focusing on gendered particularities. This is done by discussing gendered hagiographical writing against the background of relevant canonical and post-canonical Pali texts that have exerted authority in religious discourses on gender by informing and nurturing Thai religious value systems. This textual research is complemented by an ethnographic examination of Thai Buddhist beliefs and venerational practices that cannot be found in authoritative Pali texts but are important to an understanding of the particularities of female saints in modern Thai Buddhism.
However, I do not confine myself to hagiographical accounts and venerational practices directly linked to gender, I also consider other conspicuous aspects, elements, and expressions of Mae Bunruean's sainthood and her veneration. This allows me to gain a better appreciation of Mae Bunruean's outstanding role as a (female) saint in contemporary Thai Buddhism, which is relatively often investigated through the preoccupation with male practitioners. In this respect, Cook mentions in 2009 ‘an under-appreciated aspect of Buddhist women's practice: that of the accomplished and charismatic teacher’. Here, she also observes that, ‘The hagiography of males who have attained this position [of the accomplished and charismatic teacher] is a long-standing academic and anthropological concern.’Footnote 11
For the following short biographical account of her life (which is not always necessarily in chronological order) and analysis of it, I have accessed most, if not all, of the available hagiographical accounts,Footnote 12 sermon texts, and letters by Mae Bunruean and the posters that are attached at various places in Wat Awutwikasitaram in Bangkok (see below). In addition to this, I have made use of the numerous interviews I have conducted with monks, mae chis, professional amulet collectors (sian phra), and people who ‘possess faith’ (mi sattha) in Mae Bunruean.Footnote 13 My comments in this paper are further informed by my own participant observation of venerational practices,Footnote 14 undertaken with belief in the sacredness of Mae Bunruean, and my observations during visits to various sites of her veneration. When talking to Thais— both men and women—who have faith in Mae Bunruean, I informed them about my academic interests. These ‘interviews’, including group interviews with up to five people, often occurred in circumstances that made them unsystematic and spontaneous. However, this method proved to be very productive as it allowed me to gather numerous ideas and anecdotes about Mae Bunruean or personal encounters with her (including post-mortem encounters). In this way, I was able to collect valuable additional hagiographical data that do not exist in printed form but have been transmitted orally among the faith community and a number of professional amulet collectors (most of whom also have strong faith in Mae Bunruean). Thus I was able to explore why and how people revere Mae Bunruean. In particular, the oral accounts show, as I demonstrate below, that Mae Bunruean's biography does not end with her death, but goes far beyond the ‘end’ of common biographical texts. The interviews and participant observation also allowed me to gain a better understanding of how Mae Bunruean's hagiographies have been interpreted and which hagiographical elements have had the most significant impact on her followers’ faith and religious practices. Thus, the following selection of the accounts on her life and hagiographical elements is based not only on an analysis of the hagiographical texts themselves but also to a large extent on how her followers ascribe importance to or interpret specific hagiographical accounts or characteristics of Mae Bunruean's sainthood and personality. For these reasons, the interviews and observations, even though not always explicitly mentioned and referred to in this paper, have been extremely revealing and provide valuable contextualization for my research.Footnote 15 Also, a substantial amount of material used for this paper derives from amulet magazines and online sources, such as blogs, YouTube videos, and amulet websites.
Khun Mae Bunruean's life
Mae Bunruean Tongbuntoem was born in the Bangkok district of Minburi on 10 March 1895 into a poor family. Her father worked as a gardener. Mae Bunruean was the second child with his first wife. The biographies tell us that she grew up in a loving and giving family. At the age of 15 she developed a strong interest in traditional Thai massage. Her grandfather, himself a renowned masseur, gave her a manual and instructed her in Thai massage. Although still young, she received teachings in Buddhist doctrine from the famous meditation monk Luang Ta Phring, abbot of the monastery Wat Bangpakok. The biographies report that because of her meetings with Luang Ta Phring she developed a deep confidence in Buddhism and became inspired to pursue Buddhist practice. When she was of ‘an appropriate age’ Mae Bunruean married a police corporal, Joi Tongbuntoem, who was based in a police station near the renowned Bangkok monastery Wat Samphanthawong. Their marriage is described as ‘smooth’ (riaproi/rapruen), and it has been reported that Mae Bunruean's husband tried to please his wife. Since they did not have any children of their own, they adopted a girl. Mae Bunruean was a skilled tailor and traditional midwife (motamyae). She also treated people by massaging them without charge.
Mae Bunruean led a religious life that was characterized by her virtuous lifestyle, keeping the Buddhist precepts, chanting religious texts, making offerings to the local temple, and studying the Buddha's teaching (dhamma). Nevertheless, the biographies describe her as rather ‘tough’, ‘resolute’, and ‘speaking with a loud voice’. It is reported that she even used physical force to convey the meaning of Buddhist teaching, that she slapped (top) and kicked (te kon) a disciple (luksit). This was perceived as a Zen method of teaching that was to help others gain ‘sudden’ (chapphlan) understanding.Footnote 16 When still married, she took up the practice of meditation and, inspired by the dhamma teaching she listened to in the nearby monastery Wat Samphanthawong, she eventually became a mae chi in 1927 in that very same monastery. It is reported that during her first time as an ‘ordained one’ (nak buat), she achieved excellent results as a consequence of her determined meditation practice. Not only did she develop the four jhānas (mental states of meditative absorption), but also by taking these highly concentrative states of mind as a ‘ladder’, she was able to attain (the six) abhiññās (‘super-knowledge’: magical powers, divine ear, ability to read the mind of another, remembrance of former lives, divine eye, and knowledge of the ending of mental intoxicants).Footnote 17 The available biographies are unanimous in agreeing that she achieved the four jhānas, but some are less specific when referring to her achievements with regard to the abhiññās—in some life accounts it is only mentioned that she achieved ‘abhiññā’. Here it is not further specified as to which and how many she is believed to have attained. The vagueness of some biographies is, as will be discussed below, quite significant. It has been reported that she agreed with her husband she should practise the eight precepts (sin paet), which include abstaining from unchaste conduct, that is, from sexual activity.
Her first, of many—and one of her arguably most famous—supernatural occurrences is reported to have happened in 1927, when she had returned from Wat Samphanthawong to her home. The account here is reminiscent of the Buddha's own biography: ‘During that night, she could not sleep. Her husband and adopted child, both asleep, were gnashing their teeth, and snoring. She felt dhammically agitated [dhamma-saṃveja] and weary [buea]. Therefore, she made a vow [tangsat athitthan; literally to establish (oneself in) truth and make a vow] to enter the pavilion [of Wat Samphanthawong]. When she ended her vowing, [she realized that] she had emerged inside the pavilion in accordance with her vow. She was not able to explain how she was able to leave her room and enter the pavilion.’Footnote 18 When asked by sceptical friends to perform this miracle (patihan) again, she demonstrated her supernatural ability by once more miraculously appearing inside the locked pavilion before witnesses so that they could verify this. The hagiographies describe numerous miracles that Mae Bunruean was able to perform, and explain that this ability was due to her enormous mental powers which she possessed as a result of her high spiritual attainments. Thanks to these powers and spiritual accomplishments she was also able miraculously to insert positive, protective, and curative energies into objects like stones, paste, mangoes, oranges, water, and peppercorns. Once charged with beneficial energy, these objects are reported to have been used by Mae Bunruean's devotees to heal diseases, such as cancer, tuberculosis, kidney diseases, and so forth.
Mae Bunruean very quickly became famous thanks to her effective healing. The hagiographies recount that she was able to heal people when doctors could not help them. She used her ‘divine ears’ (hu thip) and ‘divine eyes’ (ta thip) to diagnose accurately patients’ diseases. Mae Bunruean not only gave massages as a means of curing people but also used the power of her vows (athitthan) and objects she charged with magic positive energy. It is also reported that her supernatural powers allowed her to perceive the spirit of a dead person waiting for rebirth. One of her most famous miracles took place in 1951 when she used the power of her wishing (athitthan) to cause a young mango tree, which had been planted only 13 months before, to blossom overnight in a season when these trees normally do not do so (phit wela ruedukan). Here, she made the following vow: ‘If Buddhism will prosper in the future, let this mango tree blossom (ok cho).’ Some of her hagiographies tell us that numerous witnesses observed this miracle and are able to certify that it really happened. In 1936 her husband Joi Tongbuntoem dramatically lost his life in a fire at the age of 42. She never remarried. The number of her followers constantly increased and she eventually established the religious group ‘Samakkhiwisutthi’ which met regularly between 1949 and 1955 in a house her followers built for her, in order to practise meditation and chant Pali texts with her, ask for cure or listen to her Buddhist teachings. It is reported that numerous people ‘became interested in Buddhism and abandoned wrong and wrongful behaviour’Footnote 19 because of their encounters with Mae Bunruean.
Mae Bunruean was not only revered because of her healing and supernatural powers and insights. In addition, the hagiographies emphasize her homiletic skills, based on a deep and thorough understanding of Buddhist doctrine. People flocked to her dhamma talks, many of which were later printed as books. Her biographies also recount that Mae Bunruean imbued amulets and Buddha statues with positive energies and she was involved in supporting Buddhist temples through fund-raising. She also repeatedly travelled to numerous provinces in all of the major parts of Thailand in order to cure sick people. An indication of her widespread popularity during her lifetime is that when she visited the distant town of Udon Thani in 1953, she was welcomed by a large crowd of people at the railway station.Footnote 20 She never accepted any money as payment for her treatments and helped people regardless of their social status. Thus her many followers not only came from all over Thailand but also included people from all social strata, including progenies of the royal family, soldiers, policemen, officials, and merchants. There were even monks who regarded themselves as admirers or followers (luksit) of Mae Bunruean. Even though she shaved her head in order to indicate her religious practice based on Buddhist precepts (sīla), in contrast to Thai mae chis she wore light green and grey coloured, yellowish and brownish clothes. It is reported that Mae Bunruean did not decide to become a permanent mae chi because she thought that this would make her too dependent on the male monastic community (saṅgha). Her biographies indicate that with increasing age, the way she led her life approximated more and more that of the monks, as regulated by their monastic code (vinaya). In this way, towards the end of her life, she decided, for example, neither to give massages to males older than the age of seven (except in exceptional cases), nor to ask for any consumer goods.
Starting in 1963 her health began to deteriorate and in the following year she suffered from kidney problems, anaemia, and high blood pressure. Against the will of her followers, she refused to see a doctor or seek medical treatment in a hospital. For nine months her illness confined her to bed. Again against the wishes of her disciples, she declined to use her supernatural powers, which she had used so often to help others, on herself, explaining that ‘If I would use [my ability to make supernatural] vows [athitthan] in order to help myself, it would mean I want to be alive, want to be happy, want to meet new things in the world [phiphop]. This all [however] would be [an expression] of mental defilements [kilesa]. I cannot do this.’ Her disciples interpreted these words as a manifestation of her awakened status. By the beginning of September 1964, her state of health had deteriorated significantly. She hardly ate anything and had great difficulties talking, as her throat was filled with sticky phlegm. Many weeks before, Mae Bunruean ordered her disciples to stop the big clocks in her house shortly after 11 in the morning. At 11.20 am on 7 September 1964, she ‘fully peacefully’ and ‘without any signs of worries’ passed away ‘never to return’, at exactly ‘the time she ordered the big clocks to be stopped as if she knew the time of her death’. Hearing the news of her death is described as a hugely traumatic experience for her many disciples who had utmost devotion and love for their leader whom they not only regarded as a teacher and healer but also as a ‘mother’ (khun mae).
Her funeral ceremonies were attended by a number of high-ranking monks, such as Somdet Phra Phutthakhosajarn (Wat Rajabophit) and Phra Ratchayandilok who gave sermons in front of the coffin, praising Mae Bunruean's Buddhist practice. On this occasion Somdet Phra Phutthakhosajarn, who ten years later became the Supreme Patriarch of the Thai Saṅgha, said that Mae Bunruean ‘had enormous mind powers [kamlang jitjai khemkhaeng] due to her marvellous [na atsajan] Buddhist practice’. Her meditation teacher Phra Maharajjamangkhalajarn (Wat Samphanthawong), himself a high-ranking monk, wrote an obituary for her in which he abundantly praised her outstanding understanding and teaching skills of Buddhist doctrine. Her body was cremated in the Bangkok monastery Wat Thatthong on 25 October in the same year. It has been reported that during her cremation her remains turned into relics, which, in Thai Buddhism, is regarded as an extremely rare event, particularly for a woman.Footnote 21 Immediately after her funeral the relics were distributed in small flat cases (talap) inscribed with the writing ‘nibbāna element’ (that nipphan). The transformation, during which parts of the dead body turn into crystallized or coloured or otherwise unusual-looking objects, is said to happen to people who are believed to have achieved full awakening.Footnote 22 Right up to the present day her followers come together every Sunday to commemorate the goodness and life of Mae Bunruean at Wat Awutwikasitaram.Footnote 23
Accumulative hagiography and authentification of supernaturality
Mae Bunruean's major biography was first published for her funeral in 1964 and it seems that many—if not most or all—of the later biographies are based on this hagiography. When compared to other major hagiographical texts of modern Thai Theravada, this one is distinctive in that it was written by not one, but by more than 100 authors. What seems to be the main biography, a text comprising some 27 pages, is embedded in some 100 shorter texts of altogether more than 120 pages. The ‘main biographical text’ seems to be in line with biographical conventions by largely following the chronology of Mae Bunruean's ‘life and work’ and being quite systematic in the way they are presented and discussed, but the short texts are all written by different authors who give brief accounts of individual encounters with Mae Bunruean or their experiences with her supernatural powers and they do not follow any apparent chronological order. The size of these texts varies significantly: while some are no longer than eight lines, others cover several pages. Many of these texts end with the notation that they were written in order to testify to the supernatural occurrences which the author observed when with Mae Bunruean, a typical concluding sentence being: ‘Thus, I have written down [this account] as evidence so that I and others can worship [Khun Mae Bunruean].’Footnote 24 In this way, many of these short texts appear to be case studies of miraculous healings of a wide range of different illnesses, in many cases, seemingly incurable. Others give short accounts of other miraculous happenings: thus some of them report that in an unusually short period of time Mae Bunruean was able to cover long distances on foot which a ‘normal’ person could not have managed.Footnote 25 Several of these accounts also mention that despite walking unprotected in the rain Mae Bunruean did not become wet. Similarly, several people observed that mud would not defile her shoes in weather conditions where this would normally be the case. A number of these stories give details and circumstances of accidents during which the author's life was saved thanks to wearing an amulet charged with magically protective energies by Mae Bunruean.
The beginning of this hagiographical process has probably to be sought in the initiative of the aforementioned highly respected monk Phra Maharajjamangkhalajarn (1886–1967) of Wat Samphanthawong, whom Mae Bunruean regarded as her meditation teacher. It has been reported that when he became aware of an increasing number of rumours about Mae Bunruean's supernatural abilities, he asked people to write down their experiences and submit their accounts to him. He eventually organized a committee consisting of ‘knowledgeable monks and lay people’ to investigate these reports, ascertaining the ‘righteousness’ (khunnatham) of and authenticating these miracles. The conclusion of this investigation was that, according to authoritative Pali scriptures of Theravada Buddhism, these supernatural abilities are possible for someone with advanced meditative achievements (jhāna).Footnote 26
The biographical accounts of Mae Bunruean do not end, however, with her death in 1964 but extend far beyond it. This is why, when I was interviewing her devotees, often the interviewee talked about her as if she were still present and able to influence other people's lives through her supernatural powers. Some devotees even reported to me that Mae Bunruean appeared as an apparition or mental image (nimitta) to her devotees. Others told me about miraculous healings that took place thanks to the beneficial power of Mae Bunruean, retained by objects she had consecrated.Footnote 27 Even after her death, in ‘chanting of wishing’ (suat kham athitthan), her disciples invoke her to ‘keep helping to protect us from any danger and from any illness, and be your children's impetus to be always successful in a righteous way’.Footnote 28 The statues of her in the shrine devoted to her in Wat Awutwikasitaram are treated not merely as a reminder of her, but as Mae Bunruean herself, as if she is present. They are addressed by devotees as ‘Khun Mae [Bunruean]’ and are partly covered with gold leaves that devotees attach to them. Also, through these statues, healing powers are invoked and devotees make donations to and prostrate themselves in front of them. Touching them may transfer beneficial energies.Footnote 29 This of course reminds us of scholarly debates on the complex problem of the presence or absence of the Buddha in relics and images of him.Footnote 30
Transcendentality and supernaturality: Female sainthood in present-day Thai Buddhism
As already mentioned above, while most, if not all, hagiographical sources on Mae Bunruean unanimously celebrate that she has successfully developed the first four jhānas, it is remarkable that many of them are rather vague when they mention her achievements of abhiññās: while some explicitly say that she—long before her death—achieved all the six abhiññās, others simply state that she achieved ‘abhiññās’, without further specifying how many and which ones exactly. Here it is implicit that she was in possession of some or all of those with supernatural powers (the first five). This vagueness and inconsistency in the hagiographical literature is quite surprising, given that, according to the Pali canon, the sixth abhiññā—that is, the attainment of full awakening—is the summum bonum of the Buddhist ideal, aspiration, and practice, and by far the most respected spiritual achievement possible in Theravada Buddhism (apart from achieving sammāsambuddha-hood, ‘perfect awakening’, of course). Even those hagiographical texts that mention Mae Bunruean's full awakening do so with relatively little attention to this, at least when compared to hagiographies of other saints of modern Thai Buddhism. Her hagiographies are also not clear on how and exactly when this happened in Mae Bunruean's life.Footnote 31 For them, stories evidencing her supernatural abilities, her healing powers, and her enormous altruism seem to be much more important. Why then do the hagiographies not devote more attention to the highly advanced transcendental achievements, which many believe she had? It seems that there are a number of possible reasons for this.
First of all, according to the biographies, it may be that Mae Bunruean herself only very reluctantly, and only when ‘really necessary’, talked about or demonstrated her spiritual attainments. In line with the Buddha's regulations for his monastic community (saṅgha) in this respect, she perceived ‘boasting about superhuman attainments [uat uttari manutsayatham]’ ‘as doing wrong to the dhamma [kanphit tham]’.Footnote 32 While it is reported that she often made use of her supernatural powers in order to help people cure their physical or mental disease, she may have seen no convincing reason to talk about or demonstrate personal transcendental achievements, which in Buddhism are regarded as something ‘to be known by the wise him/herself’ (paccattaṃ vedittabo viññūhi).Footnote 33 Indeed, it seems that she never directly claimed to have achieved the spiritual level of a ‘non-returner’ (anāgāmī, the third of four awakening levels) or full awakening. She apparently mentioned, at least according to one letter ascribed to her, that in her meditation she was able to enter ‘nirodho’ [nirot; that is, ‘extinction’], which probably means ‘nirodha-samāpatti’, a thing that—according to Pali doctrine—only anāgāmīs or arahants (fully awakened ones) are capable of attaining.Footnote 34
A second reason for the absence of more frequent direct statements about her transcendental (lokuttara) achievements may be seen in the fact that, in contrast to male saints, female saints have only very recently been acknowledged as such on a large scale in Thai Buddhism—long after most of Mae Bunruean's main hagiographies were written or compiled.Footnote 35 Her hagiographers may have been careful to enter new terrain in this respect.Footnote 36
Still another reason, probably closely linked to the point just mentioned, may—at least partially—be found in the Thai belief that the status of someone not properly ordained would be ‘too weak’ ‘to bear the [exalted] mind of an arahant (ja rongrap jit thi lutphon dai)’.Footnote 37 One of her hagiographical texts actually makes this problem quite explicit: ‘it is assumed that Mae Bunruean at least reached the level of a non-returner [anāgāmī]. The reason for this belief is that she was a layperson and laypersons are not able to bear the completely perfect purity [khwamborisut motjot doi sinchoeng] of an arahant. If she had achieved arahant-ship, this must have happened during or near the time of her death [ton lathing khan], as arahant-ship as a layperson is only possible for no longer than seven days.’Footnote 38 Had ordination into a Theravada bhikkhunī order been available to Mae Bunruean, such a statement may not have been made. In fact, it points out that, in the eyes of at least some Thai Buddhists, the absence of a Theravada bhikkhunī order appears to present a soteriological dilemma in cases of women who want to achieve or are believed to have achieved full awakening, that is, arahant-ship. ‘How could women in modern Thai Buddhism have attained long-term arahant-ship in the absence of a female Theravada order?’ is a question that has repeatedly—directly or indirectly—been discussed in hagiographical literature and on Buddhist websites and blogs, and in connection with recent attempts to revive the vanished Theravada bhikkhunī order. It was even argued that there is the belief in Thai Buddhism that awakening for women would not be possible, at least in their current life (first women would have to be reborn as men).Footnote 39 These beliefs seem to show that the possibility of becoming ordained as a mae chi is not necessarily regarded as an equivalent or satisfactory alternative to the bhikkhunī order.Footnote 40 This means that here achievement of the highest transcendental state of mind is believed to be linked to gender, at least in present times.Footnote 41 These beliefs and ‘theological’ problems seem to have originated from the exegesis of Pali canonical and post-canonical literature. While there are a number of Pali canonical stories of long-term lay-ariyapuggalas (noble persons) who have attained one of the first three levels of awakening (such as the famous lay-woman, Visākhā; the learned lay-man, Citta; and the wealthy male Buddhist lay follower, Anāthapiṇḍika), it is not reported in the Pali canon that lay-arahants did live longer than seven days beyond their attainment of full awakening. At the same time, however, there are numerous examples in the Pali texts, both canonical and post-canonical, that could be seen to support the belief that arahant-ship of a lay-person beyond one day is not possible. Thus, we can read that while Buddha's own father, Suddhodana; one of Buddha's most outstanding disciples [etadagga], Bāhiya; and the minister, Santati died as lay-arahants shortly after reaching full awakening, the Buddha explained to King Bimbisāra immediately after the king's wife Khemā attained arahant-ship that she ‘either ought to be ordained or pass into nibbāna [here means: die]’.Footnote 42 At the same time, Pali literature tells us that both Yasa, one of Buddha's first disciples, and the acrobat Uggasena achieved full awakening as lay-people but were ordained immediately after that (Vin.I.17–18 and DhA.IV.63 respectively). In the influential post-canonical text, Milindapañha, it is even explicitly stated that there are only two options for a lay-person who attains arahant-ship: either to become ordained on the very same day or to die (Mil.264–266; tasmiṃ yeva divase pabbajati vā parinibbāyati vā) as, so it is explained, it is not possible for a lay-arahant to stay alive for another day (na so divaso sakkā atikkametun'ti). In a commentary text it is explained that ‘once having, however, attained [arahant-ship, one] cannot stay in the lower class of a lay [gihilingaṃ nāmetaṃ hīnaṃ], since [this class] is not able to bear the highest qualities [that are those of an arahant; ‘uttamaguṇaṃ’]’.Footnote 43
Whereas at present many seem to believe that ‘ordination’ and ‘to die’ in this context have to be taken literally, some Thai Buddhist thinkers have proposed a variety of hermeneutical strategies that seem to be able to conciliate the tension that emerges as a result of the post-canonical exegesis of Theravada tradition, the absence of a Theravada bhikkhunī order, and the possibility for women to attain nibbāna and stay alive. For the late famous Buddhist thinker Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1906–1993), having attained arahant-ship means ‘to have transcended both the status of a lay and that of an ordained one’ (yu nuea khwam pen kharawat lae yu nuea khwam pen banphachit).Footnote 44 The Thai Buddhist studies scholar Watchara Ngamjitjaroen understands that ‘to die’ in this context may possibly be interpreted as ‘the dying of the mental defilements [kilesa]’.Footnote 45 Both Buddhadasa's and Watchara's arguments here point to the Buddhist dichotomy of ‘conventional truth’ [sammuti-sacca] and ‘ultimate truth’ [paramattha-sacca] which, as I have already mentioned elsewhere, has often been referred to in debates and discussions about the role of women in Thai Buddhism.Footnote 46 Here, ‘becoming ordained’ is understood by Thai thinkers to mean an irreversible changing of the mind (ultimate truth) and not the external act of becoming a member of the physical monastic community (conventional truth). When asked about the absence of a Theravada bhikkhunī order in Thailand, the scholar monk Phra Thepdilok argues that: ‘An ordained one [nak buat] is not [defined by being] a bhikkhunī, but anyone who has the intention to abstain [jetana wirati] from demeritorious action [bap] is called an “ordained one”. . . Why should you choose a form of abstaining from demeritorious action, when this outward form [rupbaep] is not realisable [nok wisai thi ja tham dai]?’Footnote 47
In this context, Mae Bunruean's hagiographies and the veneration of her would appear not only to make strong statements for the awakening potential of women today, but also to challenge conceptions of a clear-cut dichotomy of lay-person and ‘ordained one’. Mae Bunruean established herself as a spiritual leader whose charisma is based primarily on personal spiritual achievements, supported by and in proximity to—but ultimately outside—the Thai monastic community (saṅgha). In the way she led her life she seems to have successfully integrated non-monastic life with enormous charisma, altruism, supernatural powers, and spiritual insights, attributes more typically ascribed to a forest monk. Quite untypically her sainthood has been achieved within the turmoil of urban social life, and not in the seclusion of a forest.Footnote 48 In the absence of a Theravada bhikkhunī order—and apparently not entirely satisfied with the socio-religious structures in which Thai mae chis are embedded—Mae Bunruean developed her own identity of being ‘an ordained one’ (nak buat). Over time, she indicated her ordained status by shaving her head and wearing simple clothes in light colours. She increasingly enforced her vinaya (disciple/monastic code of discipline) practice which seemed to resemble more and more that of the monks.Footnote 49
Similarly to Mae Chi Kaew Sianglam, who passed away in 1991 and who is widely revered as a female arahant,Footnote 50 Mae Bunruean does not appear to have challenged existing structures of (gender) hierarchy in Thai society. Her sermons, which are obviously based on a rather profound and comprehensive understanding of Buddhist doctrines and narratives and are extremely eloquently delivered, deal predominantly with the way of overcoming internal defilements and seem to be largely genderless. She emphasized, though, that both men and women can attain awakening: ‘it doesn't matter whether it is the mind of a woman or the mind of a man. . . [both] can achieve full-awakening’ (mai wa jai ying rue jai chai. . . tat sangyot thang puang dai).Footnote 51 At the same time, however, she admitted that women have to face certain gendered constrictions when they want to practise meditation. Thus, she stated that it can be ‘very dangerous’ for them when they practise meditation alone in ‘physical seclusion’ (kāya-viveka), as women ‘have an external form [rup] that is the enemy of the opposite sex’. She continues, however, by arguing that this would not bar women from Buddhist practice as the Noble Path has to be developed in the mind and can be practised under any circumstances.Footnote 52
Also similarly to Mae Chi Kaew Sianglam, Mae Bunruean has been referred to in recent discussions about the possibility of the revival of the vanished Theravada bhikkhunī order. Here, it is argued that these women's lives demonstrate that women today are successfully able to practise Buddhism, despite the absence of the Theravada bhikkhunī order.Footnote 53 In contrast to Mae Bunruean's hagiographies, however, Mae Chi Kaew's attainment of full awakening has been put at the centre of her biographical accounts. In her case, it is believed that she was a fully awakened mae chi for 40 years; she has even widely been called ‘Mae Chi Arahant’, while stūpas, as explicit markers of her supreme transcendental state of mind, have been erected at relatively high cost. Also, as I discuss elsewhere,Footnote 54 biographies of Mae Chi Kaew excel in that they are replete with narrative elements very much resembling biographical accounts of the Buddha and other canonical or modern Thai saints. In these respects, the veneration of and hagiographical writings on Mae Bunruean seem to differ to some extent from those of Mae Chi Kaew: so far, no stūpas have been erected for Mae BunrueanFootnote 55 and her biographies do not contain as many narrative themes that are as immediately evocative of Buddha's own biography as is the case of Mae Chi Kaew. Some of the possible reasons for this have already been discussed in this section. However, this does not mean that there are no similarities to Pali canonical and post-canonical narrative elements and themes in her hagiographies. Quite the opposite: her hagiographies are characterized by a richness of similarities to canonical and post-canonical texts, albeit not as obviously connected to transcendentality (lokuttara) as in the biographies of Mae Chi Kaew. I want to mention only a few of the most prominent ones:
• I will discuss further below Mae Bunruean's kammically inscribed body, which is reminiscent of the Buddha's physical ‘thirty-two marks of a great man’ (dvattiṃsamahāpurisalakkhaṇāni) and which the Buddha acquired as ‘the effect of countless lifetimes of virtuous deeds’Footnote 56 and made visible the Buddha's extraordinariness.Footnote 57
• I have already mentioned the episode of Mae Bunruean's leaving her family during the night when for the first time she became aware of her exceptional supernatural powers: looking at her family she perceives the weariness of life (‘gnashing teeth’). This ‘watershed moment’Footnote 58 is a recurring theme in Thai Buddhist literature and Thai temple murals; not only the Buddha himself, but also some of his disciples are believed to have left their families after being dhammically agitated (saṃvega) when looking at their wife/harem and becoming weary or disgusted.Footnote 59
• The way Mae Bunruean's hagiographies describe her equanimity when she faced her imminent death and her refusal to prolong her life by using her supernatural powers demonstrated to her disciples that she had completely given up any attachments to life and had no fear of dying. This reminds us of fully awakened saints described in the Pali canon, such as the Buddha himself (see D.II.155–157), or Upasena (S.IV.40–41) who, when bitten by a poisonous snake, shows that he ‘has abandoned all clinging to life and for whom death is nothing to be afraid of (. . .) but is just the end of [the cycle of rebirth]’.Footnote 60
• The famous ‘mango tree miracle’ is strongly reminiscent of a rather lesser known miracle performed by the Buddha when he was challenged by heretics (titthiyā).Footnote 61 This story is told in the birth story number 483 and the commentary text of the Dhammapada (DhA.III.206–208). Here the Buddha miraculously let a mango tree instantaneously grow from a mango seed.
• In particular, Mae Bunruean's enormous power of asseveration/resolve/resolution (athitthan), which she used and has been used to relieve people of hardship and prevent misfortune, figures prominently in many hagiographical accounts and in fact has arguably become the most important characteristic of her sainthood. Mae Bunruean's hagiographies report that with her enormous powers she was able to affect inanimate things, by charging them with energies or making the rain stop, or people, by making their diseases disappear. Her extremely pure, highly developed practice and intent allowed her to use the power of her words as an ‘act of truth’ (sacca-kiriyā) to make these things happen miraculously. This again is reminiscent of the extremely well-known story of the former ruthless killer Aṅgulimāla who became an awakened one (arahant) after being converted by the Buddha. The Pali canon reports that Aṅgulimāla relieved a pregnant woman of her childbirth pains by invoking the truth: ‘Sister, since I was born with the noble birth [ariyāya jātiyā jāto], I do not recall that I have ever intentionally deprived a living being of life. By this truth, may you be well and may your infant be well! [tena saccena sotthi te hotu, sotthi gabbhassā’ti].’Footnote 62 This utterance became the popular Aṅgulimāla-Paritta (protective mantra) which is often chanted by Thai Buddhist monks and is believed, along with some other canonical texts, to possess healing or protective powers.Footnote 63
Gender, bodily relics, and amulets
Anthropologists have described various restrictive cultural practices and prohibitions in Thailand that are the manifestation of beliefs about women's bodies having the power to pollute magically sacred objects or areas. For this reason, women are sometimes not allowed to enter specific areas in temples deemed to be vulnerable to the magically polluting powers of menstrual blood. In relation to amulets, Terwiel describes a Thai belief according to which ‘women should not possess an object charged with protective power; inadvertently she is likely to spoil its magical value’.Footnote 64 In addition, the consecration of amulets, which has been described as an exclusively male domain, is normally done either by individual monks when they are believed to possess enormous ‘mind powers’ (phalang cit) or by a group of monks. Here meditation and often incantations (katha) are used to charge amulets with magically efficacious powers.Footnote 65 In this cultural context, Mae Bunruean's biography brings out another conspicuous gendered feature: between 11 and 13 September 1951 Mae Bunruean performed the consecration (athitthan) ceremony of 100,000 amulets, called ‘Phra Phutthonoi’, depicting the Buddha in the meditation posture. She donated these amulets, made of different ingredients such as dried flowers and clay, to Wat Awutwikasitaram. The monastery subsequently gave them to people who donated money for the development of the monastery. Her powers to consecrate amulets must have been believed to be considerable for it is even reported that monks asked Mae Bunruean for help in charging highly sought-after amulets depicting the highly revered monk Luang Pu Thuat who lived during the Ayutthaya period.Footnote 66 The ‘Phra Phutthonoi’ amulets have become increasingly popular and valued. Although they were initially given away for free, some 25 years after her death, some of them have sold for up to 50,000 Thai Baht each. For a while, however, the amulets dropped quite significantly in value and were temporarily worth less than 10,000 Baht in the amulet market after a well-known amulet magazine reportedly ‘criticized’ (jomti)–together with another matter–the fact that they were consecrated by a woman. Their value has risen again, however, and nowadays some Phra Phutthonoi amuletsFootnote 67 are valued at more than 200,000 Thai Baht (some 4,200 GBP) each.Footnote 68 Some Thai daily newspapers have also recently reported that a number of well-known amulet collectors, such as multi-millionaire Boy Thaphrajan who made his fortune by trading amulets, are wearing Mae Bunruean's amulets.Footnote 69 This has certainly contributed to the recent enhancement of their reputation. Due to the enormous current popularity of Phra Phutthonoi and the scarcity of amulets still available, the monastery Wat Awutwikasitaram has even decided to produce new amulets following Mae Bunruean's method and using the ingredients she used, including the substance of damaged original Phra Phutthonoi amulets.
In the huge and booming Thai amulet market,Footnote 70 Mae Bunruean is now widely considered as a unique exception in that she is a female source of the enormous charisma (barami) that is needed to produce amulets that are so highly sought after and valued.Footnote 71 Even though there are some other Thai amulets that have been produced and/or consecrated by women—such as the amulet ‘Phra Khotsetthi’ by the late Mae Chi Prathum Choti-anan and the Wat Paknam amulet ‘Phra Khongkhwan’—these are not widely known; or, as in the case of Phra Khongkhwan, they associated with power stemming from a monk.Footnote 72 Mae Bunruean's Phra Phutthonoi amulet is certainly an exception here: in my many interviews with amulet collectors, it has often been stressed that she is the only (thaunan) woman who is widely acknowledged to have been able to effectively ‘consecrate’ (athitthan) amulets with magically efficacious powers. It is even believed that the amulets that she consecrated are more magically powerful (phalang di kwa) than some of those consecrated by male monks who are famous for their amulets (keji ajan bang ong).Footnote 73 Not only are her amulets attributed these powers, but even photographs and small statues of Mae Bunruean are worn as amulets. In addition, statues of her, with relics of her enshrined in their pedestals, have also become sought-after items of veneration. According to my research, it seems likely that medallion amulets depicting Mae Bunruean as a highly revered female practitioner may well be the very first of their kind in Thai Buddhism, having first been produced in 1968, only four years after her death. Some 20 years after her death, a monk and close disciple of Mae Bunruean produced an amulet that took a similar name and form of Mae Bunruean's amulet, ‘Phra Phuttho’ and which contained parts of Mae Bunruean relics.
However, her advanced spiritual achievements and her supernatural powers are not only objectified in the Phra Phuttho amulets or after death in her relics. Even during her lifetime, her spiritual superiority had become manifest to her devotees in her body. As mentioned above, the hagiographical theme of Mae Bunruean's bodily purity frequently occurs in her biographies: Mae Bunruean's body was defiled neither by rain nor by mud. In addition to this, her skin is described as impenetrable: when a dog tried to bite her, Mae Bunruean's skin was not damaged at all, whereas all other victims of this dog had experienced bleeding wounds.Footnote 74 However, her body became not only a physical manifestation of her superior morality but at the same time objectified and made visible her ambivalent kamma (in Sanskrit: karma) from a previous life. Due to her significantly advanced meditative achievements Mae Bunruean was able to recollect former lives. Thus, in one rebirth, some 1,000 years ago, Mae Bunruean told her disciples, she was reborn as a daughter of a ‘king of Chiang Mai’ (phra jau chiang mai). At the age of ten, she participated in a ceremony during which the golden spire of a cetiya (bell-shaped Buddha shrine) was moulded. While the material was melting she secretly added one of her golden ankle bracelets to the melting pot, as a meritorious act. As a consequence of this, her nursemaid was punished as she was held responsible for the loss of the bracelet. Since the princess remained silent (choei sia) during this, as kammic consequences of these events, Mae Bunruean was reborn into a poor family in her present life. The goodness (anisong) of her donating the bracelet, however, caused the appearance of marks on her left sole which resemble a cetiya and a flag. Only at the age of 60 did Mae Bunruean reveal these auspicious marks to her disciples. Prints of the marks on her foot were later reproduced on posters and postcards, which devotees display in order to prevent evil energies from entering their houses. In this way, while not only magically efficacious, pictures of her kammically inscribed body demonstrate to and remind her followers of basic principles of Buddhist teaching, that is, of the Buddhist kammic law according to which no intentional action is without its consequences. In this way, her body has not only become the source of supernatural, apotropaic powers, but also a homiletic device that demonstrates and authenticates the universal validity of Buddhist teaching.
Discussion
In the introduction to this paper I stated that I intended to examine changes occurring in modern Thai Buddhism with regard to the status and roles of women as accomplished Buddhist practitioners. Having introduced and examined hagiographical accounts of Mae Bunruean and her veneration in various forms, this initial statement needs further qualification. While it is true that it can be argued that Mae Bunruean's hagiographies could be seen as falling into the pattern of Thai women who have earned public recognition, particularly for their advanced meditation skills, as other scholars observed some years ago,Footnote 75 the scale and pervasiveness of Mae Bunruean's veneration seem to tap into the recent observation of an increasing number of Thai Buddhist women who are widely believed to be accomplished practitioners.Footnote 76 This change in scale is not only evidenced by an increasing number of hagiographical texts on female practitioners, which are being more widely distributed, in particular (but not only) on the internet—in the case of Khun Mae Bunruean a hagiography of her has been sold in Thai Seven Eleven shops, or in the case of Mae Chi Kaew, a hagiography written in English has been distributed internationally for free—but also in material culture, visible through amulets depicting female practitioners or relatively large shrines and stūpas conveying powerful meanings of women's spiritual potential. However, as I have already argued elsewhere, although the widespread interest in the relics, amulets, and biographies of female saints may have begun only relatively recently with the veneration of Mae Bunruean and Mae Chi Kaew, we cannot infer from this that up until then there were no outstanding female Buddhist practitioners.Footnote 77 In short, I have argued here that visible markers of accomplished female Buddhist practice have occurred recently and conspicuously on a scale that—arguably—has never been witnessed before in Thai Buddhism.
It appears that Mae Bunruean's popularity has risen quite significantly in the last five years or so. This is not only visible through the relatively high prices which followers and amulet collectors are prepared to pay for her amulet ‘Phra Phutthonoi’, the recently increased coverage in Thai daily newspapers and amulets magazines, and the publication of biographies of her,Footnote 78 but also by the fact that an increasing number of devotees participate in the weekly chanting in the shrine built for her in Wat Awutwikasitaram.Footnote 79 Having discussed and examined the many conspicuous spiritual achievements that are widely attributed to Mae Bunruean in largely male-dominated areas, such as the power to consecrate amulets, sainthood made manifest through the tangible objects of relics, and the ability to exercise a variety of miraculous powers, the question must necessarily be raised as to how it was possible for a woman to achieve all this. Her exalted position in Thai Buddhism can certainly not be explained by a privileged social background as she came from a rather poor family. Nevertheless, Mae Bunruean was able to establish herself as a widely acknowledged teacher, extremely successful Buddhist practitioner, and a source of apotropaic powers by authentication through the testimonies of a large number of people, including high-ranking and renowned monks, those from the nobility and military, and many other people from all kinds of social backgrounds. ‘Evidences’ (lakthan) for her powers have been abundant both in the written sources and oral accounts of her life. There are even photographs of her as she apparently entered the highly advanced concentration level of ‘nirot’ (‘cessation’ of suffering). Other photographs document the ‘mango tree miracle’. In fact, the authentication of her supernatural abilities, which are still effective even after her death, has become a recurring theme in the many hagiographical texts, both written and oral. Her hagiographies and oral accounts are replete with reports authenticating her considerable supernatural powers. Even her body has become evidence of her conspicuousness, for it has been regarded and revered as a manifestation of her exceptional qualities: in life, as expressed in the words of Mrozik, a ‘visible marker of’ her superior ‘morality’Footnote 80 and after her death, in the form of relics and powerful amulets. Together with the hagiographical texts, the relics—and especially the amulets—have helped to spread her reputation very widely indeed. Her amulets, relics, photographs, small statues, and medallions, to all of which protective and other beneficial powers are attributed, are worn by her followers. Mae Bunruean continues to affect her followers by reappearing as mental images (nimitta). In this way, the efficacy of her supernatural abilities continues to increase and has become more widely and easily accessible through her amulets, other objects she consecrated, her pictures, and her statues. Mae Bunruean's numerous biographies have also been widely circulated on the internet; Wat Sangkhathan and Wat Awutwikasitaram, both famous monasteries, have each devoted a shrine to her, organized special ceremonies for her, and displayed her relics to demonstrate her high spiritual achievements.
Despite all of these spiritual achievements and the high status ascribed to her, it cannot be denied that her biographies also reflect gendered asymmetries and hierarchies in Thai Buddhism. However, the biographies do not seem to regard this as important or relevant and place much more emphasis on her supernatural powers and altruism, which are consistently depicted as genderless spiritual achievements. Because of her gender, Mae Bunruean was excluded institutionally from the monastic community and, consequently, she lacked the charisma that monks automatically possess as a result of their ordination into the ‘unbroken’ lineage believed to have been established by the Buddha. Nonetheless, she was able to receive knowledge, guidance, support, and access to the monastic environment in a similar way to monks. This allowed her to develop her meditation and build her charisma, making her gender ultimately irrelevant while—on a conventional level—maintaining gendered values and traditions.
Even though Mae Bunruean's hagiographies certainly contain many elements that depict her as being in line with Pali canonical and post-canonical paradigms of a fully awakened saint (arahant), the hagiographical accounts place more emphasis on her supernatural powers and the altruistic way in which she used them in order to relieve people from their hardships. While her homilies very often dealt with awakening and the spiritual practice thereto, Mae Bunruean became more famous for her supernaturality rather than her transcendentality. Still, her hagiographies are unique collections of powerful statements about the possibility not only of female magical powers to heal (rather than to pollute), but also about spiritual potential in a socio-cultural context that, in terms of gender, has too often been described and evaluated in male terms. McDaniel stated that, ‘The power of the state to control nuns, monks, and even lay expression is often over-emphasized in modern scholarship. Until recently, the agency and creativity of individual Buddhists is often overlooked.’Footnote 81 In line with McDaniel's observations, I maintain that Mae Bunruean's hagiographies and her veneration demonstrate once more that scholars must not overlook the biographies of individuals when trying to provide a more ethnographically accurate picture of Thai Buddhism. Even though the study of institutional history is important in understanding Thai Buddhism, in itself it is unable to explain and do justice to life stories, beliefs in, and the veneration of Buddhist practitioners like Mae Bunruean. Mae Bunruean not only established herself in many areas of Thai Buddhism that are invariably ascribed to an exclusively male-dominated domain but also succeeded in inspiring and receiving the support of individuals from established Buddhist institutions. Her life shows the complexity of concepts and relations of power in modern Thai Buddhism and seems to defy generalized and oversimplified descriptions of gender relations and hierarchies.
