Monk School to teach LBs maleness

[rxpharm]

Here's an interesting article from Associated Free Press

CHIANG KHONG, Thailand (AFP) - The 15-year-old aspiring "ladyboy" delicately applied a puff of talcum powder to his nose -- an act of rebellion at the Thai Buddhist temple where he is learning to "be a man".

"They have rules here that novice monks cannot use powder, make-up, or perfume, cannot run around and be girlish," said Pipop Thanajindawong, who was sent to Wat Kreung Tai Wittaya, in Chiang Khong on the Thai-Laos border, to tame his more feminine traits.

But the monks running the temple's programme to teach masculinity to boys who are "katoeys", the Thai term for transsexuals or ladyboys, have their controversial work cut out.

"Sometimes we give them money to buy snacks but he saved it up to buy mascara," headteacher Phra Pitsanu Witcharato said of Pipop.

Novice monks' days pass as in any other temple -- waking before dawn, collecting alms and studying Buddhism -- but every Friday attention turns to the katoeys at the attached school.

"Were you born as a man or a woman or can you not specify your gender - not man or woman?" asked Phra Pitsanu at a recent assembly. "You cannot be anything else but your true gender, which is a man. As a novice you can only be a man."

'Katoey' is the Thai term for transsexuals or ladyboys

The temple has a stricter interpretation than others of rules governing behaviour during Buddhist training that is a key childhood experience for many Thai boys.

Pupils are banned from using perfume and make-up and prohibited from singing, playing music and running.

"We cannot change all of them but what we can do is to control their behavior to make them understand that they were born as a man... and cannot act like a woman," said Phra Pitsanu.

The Kreung Tai temple has run the course for boys aged between 11 and 18 since 2008, after former principle Phra Maha Vuthichai Vachiramethi devised the programme because he thought reports of katoeys in the monkhood had "affected the stability of Thai Buddhism".

He told AFP that he hopes the teaching methods will be rolled out to other temple schools to "solve the deviant behavior in novices".

Thailand has one of the largest transsexual populations in the world

It is an attitude that enrages gay rights and diversity campaigner Natee Teerarojanapong, who said trying to alter the boys' sense of gender and sexuality was "extremely dangerous".

"These kids will become self-hating because they have been taught by respected monks that being gay is bad. That is terrible for them. They will never live happily," he told AFP.

Gay and katoey culture is visible and widely tolerated in Thailand, which has one of the largest transsexual populations in the world, and Natee said the temple's programme is "very out of date".

But Phra Atcha Apiwanno, 28, disputed the idea that society accepted ladyboys and said he joined the monkhood because of social stigma about his sexual identity.

"The reason I became a monk is to train my habits, to control my expression... I didn't want to be like this," he told AFP.

Monks have had limited success in their project -- three of the six ladyboys to have graduated from the school are said to have embraced their masculinity, but the remaining three went on to have sex changes.

Pipop said he has struggled with his sexuality at the temple.

At home in Bangkok he dressed like a girl, putting on make-up and taking hormones until he developed breasts, but he has since stopped the treatment and wears only a surreptitious dab of powder at the temple.

He does not believe he will live up to his family's hopes that he will become more manly.

"I can make them proud even I'm not a man," the teenager said, adding he had given up his ambition to be an airhostess and now aspires to work in a bank.

He thinks he will have a sex change after graduation.

"Once I leave the monkhood the first thing I want to do is to shout, to scream out loud saying: 'I can go back to being the same again!'"

This is surprising to me as I didn't think Thailand had such programs. With the recent win by Pheu Thai, it will be interesting to see how this program expands, as Thaksin didn't have a favorable disposition to LBs when he was in power.

[pdogg]

A few times of year my teerak spends a few days or a week at a wat as a "nun". She wears white.

No make up or perfume permitted but that applies to both ladies and ladyboys.

[SiamSam]

Hmmmm, seems like an interesting place to go pray. Can I go?!!?

[paulj92]

can i cum

[Luung]

I don't really go for bald LB's myself, but each to his own? :p

@PDogg, that's really cool!... Well done to the Temple & bless her too for wanting to go of her own accord a couple of times a year!

@Rxpharm, I've just written quite a long explanation as to why they're so draconian up in that part of the country, but I've just lost the bloody thing out there in the ether somewhere & with a limited amount of time I just couldn't bare to write it all again, sorry mate.

I honestly believe it's all part of the cranky, puritanical backlash that's been going on since H.I.V. became so prevalent in the far North of the Country that it actually became endemic within their communities, especially the Hill Tribes. They've actually done an incredibly good job trying to combat the spread of the disease, but some of the measures & indoctrinations being inflicted on the younger generation up there at the moment defy any sort of logic.

I was going to explain a lot of other incredibly stupid & knee jerky stuff that's been going on up there too... But...

Anyway, there's always been an element within the religious & political 'say so's' of this country that would have us all locked up in bed by 8.00pm ever night if they could, so let's hope the silly bastards at the Temple aren't also keeping this kind of stupidity up just to try & score some brownie points from Khun Taskin when he comes back home? you might think that's far fetched & that I'm a looney, but it isn't & I'm not.

God knows how many times I've seen ladyboys getting beaten up in the back of police pick ups in Chiang Mai when that bastard was in power! If you ran over or shouted at them, they'd just drive off & give them an even worse bash elsewhere. :diablo:

BTW, that all stopped as soon as he went!

just out of interest, (don't know the abviviation) the four most beautiful, drop dead gorgeous ladyboys that I have ever met in my life have all come from the Chiang Khong, Chiang Saen, Mea Sai area.

[rxpharm]

PD, thanks for the comments.

Lung, certainly the Chiang Mai Reds are extremely active against LBGT having disrupted the last couple of annual parades in Chiang Mai.

Thanks for your insights - I am saddened that there is still such intolerance especially in the North. If things get worse with Pheu Thai now in power, it will be a reversal of the last few years of progress.

Actually it is common for an lb to spend some time at a temple - my current gf and her friends do it at least once or twice a year (like PD's gf) dressed in white to meditate and learn from the head monk.

[Luung]

That's cool, so if an LB's got a bald head I don't necessarily have to take it that she's just come out of the 'Monkey House'?

I'd best put an amend on my LB balding & alupecia thread!

Seriously though, I'm assuming that your partner & her friends don't have to shave her heads when they stay at the temple? Otherwise I'm sure the LB contingent at these places of worship would be considerably under represented?

I ask because I live a stone's throw away from a meditation retreat & all the nuns that I've ever seen there have had their heads shaved??