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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 15, 2008
Review of Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand
Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. By Monica Lindberg Falk. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007, 238 pages, ISBN 0-2959-8726-X, US $30.00.
Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in
Thailand by Monica Lindberg Falk is a fascinating study of the Thai mae
chiis and will undoubtedly become required reading for anyone
interested in Thai Buddhism or female Buddhist asceticism. Falk begins
her study by outlining the context in which her ethnography was
conducted. In addition to numerous short trips to Thailand over a period
of a few years, Falk spent one year living among mae chiis in a samnak chii,
learning the language, following their routine (including performing
daily alms rounds) and adopting their rules with few exceptions (she did
not, for example, shave her head). The result is a powerful ethnographic
study that expresses the complex humanity of the mae chii experience.
