{"id":1810,"date":"2013-09-24T12:04:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T12:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2013-09-23T14:02:05","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T14:02:05","slug":"how-to-become-a-thai-monk-ordination-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/how-to-become-a-thai-monk-ordination-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Thai Monk: Ordination Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This article is a continuation of a series of articles on becoming a Thai Buddhist monk.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Before even becoming a monk there is a list of qualifications (\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e19\u0e15\u0e23\u0e32\u0e22\u0e34\u0e01\u0e18\u0e23\u0e23\u0e21<\/a>) you must first pass. You will be asked about each qualification along with additional questions about why you would like to be ordained. Below is the ordered list of 13 qualifications. During the monk ordination ceremony you will be publicly asked about each.<\/p>\n

\"DSC04449\"<\/p>\n

image: During ordination, two monks asked me a yes\/no question about each of the 13 qualifications.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#1-5 \u2013 Can\u2019t have any infectious diseases.<\/p>\n

The rules actually list five specific diseases of which I won\u2019t detail. The main intention of this rule is to not have any infectious disease that could infect the other monks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#6 \u2013 Must be a human being (not a demon, animal, etc.).<\/p>\n

There is a story of a creature who wanted to learn the teachings of Buddha and so became a monk. But he was discovered when he fell asleep and accidentally returned to demon form. They kicked him out the monkhood, not out of discrimination against non-humans, but because non-humans don\u2019t have the mental capacity to learn Buddhism. Or so the story goes . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#7 \u2013 Must be male. (by birth, and without surgical alterations)<\/p>\n

Actually, Buddha equally ordained both males and females as monks. But Thai culture does not. The culture that Buddha lived in was against it, too. In a later article I\u2019ll explain how the rules often conflicts with the cultural norms in Buddhist monkhood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#8 \u2013 Must not be a slave.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the investment of slave owners would be threatened.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#9 \u2013 Not have debt.<\/p>\n

The point of this rule is to not become a monk to escape paying off a debt. Please don\u2019t ask me about your mortgage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#10 \u2013 Must be at least 20 years of age.<\/p>\n

If you are under 20, you can only become a \u2018naen\u2019, or a novice monk.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#11 \u2013 Can\u2019t work for the government.<\/p>\n

While it is unclear to me if independent government contractors count, this rule I believe was written so politicians can\u2019t use the monkhood to escape a political situation. Supposedly soldiers became ordained to avoid fighting in wars, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#12 \u2013 You must have permission from your parents.<\/p>\n

Parents need you to tend to the farm, have children to continue the family name, take care of them in their old age, etc. It is part of the Asian \u2018respect and listen to your elders\u2019 tradition. In Buddha\u2019s time, newly ordained monks rarely saw their family again \u2013 so parental permission wasn\u2019t to be taken lightly!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#13 \u2013 Already own your monk robes.<\/p>\n

Buddhist supply stores sell them. Sometimes the temple will give you some at no cost.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beyond these rules there is also one unwritten rule:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#14 \u2013 If you come from another religion you must first follow a monk for four months.<\/p>\n

This rule exists to ensure people make an informed decision before converting. Not all Thai temples will require this, however.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After becoming a monk there are many other rules to follow. I\u2019ll go over those in the next few posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Before even becoming a monk there is a list of qualifications (\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e19\u0e15\u0e23\u0e32\u0e22\u0e34\u0e01\u0e18\u0e23\u0e23\u0e21) you must first pass. You will be asked about each qualification along with additional questions about why you would like to be ordained. Below is the ordered list of 13 qualifications.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111272,275376,275375,6639,10177],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-monk","tag-ordination","tag-pra","tag-rules","tag-thai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1815,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/1815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}