The above film, Nahkon Pathom, Thailand, is among the winners of the Smithsonian’s 2014 In Motion video contest. A description of the short documentary:
]]>Women in Thailand cannot become officially ordained buddhist monks; Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, age 68, is determined to reverse this tradition. Biel Calderon’s video details Kabilsingh’s spiritual journey after leaving her job as a professor at a renowned Thai university in 2000, being ordained a full bhikkhuni (the word for female Buddhist monks) in Sri Lanka, and returning to her home country to improve the position of Thai women in religion.