Ven. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda — born Chatsumarn Kabilsingh — is the first Thai woman to take full Theravada bhikkhuni ordination and the senior figure in the revival of the Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha in Thailand and across the broader Theravada world.
Born into an academic family, she received a PhD in religious studies from McMaster University in Canada and served for many years as a professor of religious studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok, where she edited the international journal Yasodhara, the principal English-language publication on women in Buddhism. Her mother, Voramai Kabilsingh, became in 1971 the first Thai woman to take ordination as a Mahayana bhikshuni, ordained in Taiwan; the family monastery of Songdhammakalyani in Nakhon Pathom traces its origins to her mother's work.
Ven. Dhammananda took novice ordination in Sri Lanka in 2001 and full bhikkhuni ordination in 2003, in the dual ordination ceremony recognised by the Mahabodhi Society and supported by Sri Lankan bhikkhus and the Dharmaguptaka bhikshunis from Taiwan. Her ordination is regarded as the foundational event in the modern revival of the Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha — the first Thai Theravada woman to take full ordination in over a thousand years.
She has subsequently ordained, supported, and trained hundreds of women across Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, including the bhikkhuni community at Songdhammakalyani, which is now home to thirteen fully ordained bhikkhunis and a substantial novitiate. Her work has been instrumental in the changing legal and institutional position of female Buddhist monastics in Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Her teaching style is direct, scholarly, and grounded in the Vinaya — she has been an unrelenting advocate for the canonical authenticity of the bhikkhuni ordination tradition and for the place of women in the senior monastic life of the Theravada world.
Applications for personal time are received through Songdhammakalyani on a quarterly cadence. Priority is given to women practitioners seeking ordination and to those undertaking the formal Theravada bhikkhuni training.
