Presents a unique ethnography of the Thai Buddhist nuns, examines what it implies to be a female ascetic in contemporary Thailand, and analyses how the ordained state for women fits into the wider gender patterns found in Thai society.

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction. Buddhist female ascetics in Thai society
2. Gender orders and gendering renunciation - past and present
3. Themes of going forth
4. Transcending the lay realm
5. Mai chii communities and the making of a mai chii
6. Gender and the fields of merit
7. A religious field in transition
8. Mai chiis' quest for education
9. Struggles for legal recognition
10. Summary and conclusions
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Monica Lindberg Falk is a research fellow at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University in Sweden. Her work focuses on gender, religion, and social change in Thailand.