Gender in Buddhist Southeast Asian History and Anthropology - The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma and Gender and the Path to Awakening: Hidden Histories of Nuns in Modern Thai Buddhism Available to Purchase

Gender is a complex topic within Buddhist societies and one that has long held the fascination of researchers studying Southeast Asia. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, scholars, not knowing how to categorize the status of women, portrayed them as doing better than their counterparts in China and India, with relative gender equality.¹ Buddhism adds another layer to the gender question. Although Barbara Andaya argues that Theravada Buddhism attracted female support, propelling its spread in mainland Southeast Asia, there is much more to explore concerning the ways Theravada Buddhism affects gender relations in Southeast Asian societies. Can women reach the highest levels of the religion in similar ways to men? What advantages do men have within the conservative Theravada Buddhist hierarchy? How has this affected society's perceptions of each gender? These are some of the complex questions that two recent books deal with, both reaching a high level of...