Why monks are taught to be wary of women and girls

There are few opportunities for direct interactions between the community of monks and the young women of a congregation. Any distraction from the practice of meditation and observation of the precepts is overtly discouraged. Men in Thailand are encouraged and rewarded for spending a limited period of time as a monk as a rite of passage. They must abstain from drinking, smoking and sex as a acknowledgement of their serious intention to learn self discipline towards growth on the path of joining the adult community.

In more conservative forms of Buddhism, desire is controlled by focusing on the development of internal aversion to the object or goal that is most deeply desired.

Northern Thai culture historically practiced a hedonistic and uninhibited attitude towards sex and drinking

The acceptance and integration of a religion that encourages abstinence from alcohol and sex.

Thai men and women freely flirt,  sharing tobacco and intoxicating drinks. Thai women were typically bare-breasted and Thai men had extensive tattooing from their waist to below the knee. The tattoos were an indication of strength and virility. No Thai woman would seriously consider the advances of a man without tattoos.

Painted mural depicting scenes from the Lanna culture of the north from a mural painted on the walls of the Viharn Lai Kham at Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai.

Lipstick on the Buddha

Statue at Angkor Wat marked with lipstick. Our guide explains: Women apply make-up to a statue to wish for beauty in a future rebirth. 

The price of lust

Popular throughout Asia are Buddhist Hell Parks. They are usually part of, or adjacent to a local Temple. Lurid, graphic and unsparing life-size sculptures depict the torments that wait for lay people that do not keep the precepts of the Buddhist faith.

Women are often portrayed as eager to lead men astray. Monastic religions typically emphasize the virtues of abstinence from sex and alcohol. The Hell Park sculptures have a highly contradictory message to convey. They must "split the difference" between frankly erotic and sensual depictions of women and the pain and suffering hidden as the future price of pleasures the unwary man enjoys in life.

Mara's daughters

Hardwired into Buddhism is a deep suspicion of women. In the Buddha's final efforts to achieve enlightenment the demon Mara sent his daughters to seduce him from his goal.

Alms round

Women's roles in support of the Theravada Buddhist Sangha have been limited by the cultural restraints of the Southeast Asian societal traditional norms. They do what monks and most men in traditional societies do not do for themselves. They prepare food and provide the fabric for clothing.

The daily giving of sticky rice and plastic bags with curries on alms round and new robes during Kathina and at funerals are important functional supports for a community made up of boys and men.

Buddha's mother as a Yakshi

Ananda Pagoda Temple in the Bagan Archeological Zone, Myanmar

Sidhartha's mother Queen Maya balances herself with a branch from a Sala tree giving birth to the future Buddha from her left side. An emphasis of her fertility is demonstrated by the holding of her attendants breast.

The iconography is much older than the Buddhist religion. The nearly identical representation goes back to the pre-Vedic era. The mother goddess origins on the fertilizing power of women that made the trees blossom by their mere touch.

Yakshis or Yakshini (Sanskrit) are beings found in Hindi, Buddhist and Jain mythology. In South India Yakshis are not benevolent. They exist to seduce men and lure then to their death.

Right side image:Vedika pillar with Yaksini. 

In this case, the yaksi is in the form of a vrksa-devata (tree goddess), and specifically, an asoka dohada, that is, a dohada who grasps the branch of an asoka tree. Dohada is a Prakrt word that means "two hearted one" and refers specially to the longings of the pregnant woman, whose body contains her own heart and that of her unborn child. The term is also used to refer to plants at budding time, which is said to long for the touch of a beautiful woman, as this causes them to bloom. A double reference to fruit being brought forth occurs in the blossoming tree and the gesture of the dohada's left hand, which points to her genital area while holding a flowering branch from the asoka tree as if it emerges from her womb.

The Art of Ancient India by Susan L. Huntington

Thilashin Nuns in Myanmar

Buddhist Burmese categorize Thilashin as tawdwet or ngebyu. A nun who was previously married or widowed before choosing to be ordained is a tawdwet. Ngebyu nuns or young women who are "young and pure," usually virgins that seek ordination as a nun as a profession.

Because ngebyu nuns are considered to have more knowledge of scripture and the practice of meditation that are more accorded more respect that tawdwet nuns.

Source: In Search of Buddha's Daughters by Christine Toomey

A History of Women Saints in Buddhism

When the Buddha's mother died suddenly seven days after his birth, the responsibility to raise him fell to his aunt. After he established his monastic order of monks she came to him with a request to create a parallel order of ordained female members of the Sangha. He refused her first request but later changed his mind. The first order of ordained women was created, separate from the male order and under the leadership of Buddha's aunt.

These women became Buddhism's first order of nuns. There where twelve apostles and they are regarded as Bhikshuni saints. Buddha's aunt Mahaprajapati became the first woman in Buddhism to become an Arhat (enlightened one) and many of her apostles achieved enlightenment.

Buddhist Thilashin in Myanmar

Bhikkunis in Southeast Asia

Thilashin is a Burmese term that means "Keeper of moral virtue."

A Thilashin is a female lay renunciate. *In the Theravada tradition, some scholars believe that the bhikkhuni lineage became extinct in the 11th to 13th centuries and that no new bhikkhunis could be ordained since there were no bhikkhunis left to give ordination. For this reason, the leadership of the Theravada bhikkhu Sangha in Burma and Thailand deem fully ordained bhikkhunis as impossible.*  (*Wikipedia)

In Thailand, women can take partial vows in the Buddhist Sangha. Like the Thilashin, the Maechi function in a gray area between that of a lay follower and a fully ordained monk. The Maechi are recognized by their shaved heads and white robes.

In Buddhism women are as capable of achieving enlightenment as men.

Cambodians with disabilities from the war are retrained to perform on folk instruments

Hindus bathing in the river at Ayodhya

A hand reaches out to help pull an old man from the sacred Sarayu River. A circle of flowers float on the surface of the water and his path back to the shore are can be seen. The woman on the right is just making her way out to do her morning ritual bathing. A yellow string (marking the safe limits of the river depth) makes a subtle diagonal into the upper third of the frame. 

Novice monks at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, Thailand

New Year Countdown is a new event for the Thai people organized as a religious ceremony to make merit. Novice monks are responsible to make certificates of participation and hand out bundles of a thin cotton string called sai sin. The string is unwound and attached to a canopy suspended above the participants head then held wound around the fingers or the head. The string acts like a wire transmitting the power generated by monks chanting sacred text.

Audio recording of traditional Hindu religious singing

Local women gather together with drums and small hand cymbals to sing praises to Lord Vishnu. *A bhajan may be sung in a temple, in a home, under a tree in the open, or near a river bank or a place of historic significance.  In Hinduism, Bhajan and its Bhakti analog Kirtan, have roots in the ancient metric and musical traditions of the Vedic era, particularly the Samaveda. The Samaveda samhita is not meant to be read as a text, it is like a musical score sheet that must be heard.* 

*Wikipedia

Manikarnika Ghat

Monochromatic image of smoke from cremation pyres in Varanasi

Boats for hire take tourists close to shore to see the largest cremation site on the Ganges.

Hanuman in love with the mermaid queen

Episode 7: Building the Bridge to Lanka, Royal Ballet in Luang Prabang

Wat Paphaimisaiyaram facade mural, Luang Prabang

Crossing the courtyard after the morning meal with fellow novice monks

Wat Paphaimisaiyaram Luang Prabang, Laos

Temple eave bracket with Elephant Head motif

Luang Prabang, Laos

Hatsadilings and Kinnaras Stencil Design in Laos

Flanked by floral motifs various winged creatures from Buddhist mythology decorate the facade of a small temple in Laos: Kinnaras (half-man half-bird), Hatsadilings (half-elephant half-swan) and three headed birds.