Hundreds of women are defying generations of Thai tradition and ordaining as Theravada Buddhist monks. Under the current rules in Thailand, women are forbidden from being ordained as monks. The governing body for monks, the Supreme Sangha Council, maintains that women can't be ordained because female monks never existed in Thailand. ‘If they are ordained, it is considered an offense to Buddha’, says Phra Thamkittimetee, of the Buddhist Protection Society of Thailand. However, a growing movement is being led by the Venerable Dhammananda. In 2003, the former academic became the country's first Theravada Buddhist female monk but to be ordained, she had to travel to Sri Lanka. ‘I keep telling them, you are part of this movement that is going to be written down in history. We are on the right side of history’, she says. As the Abbess of Thailand's first all-female monastery, the Venerable Dhammananda is now offering temporary ordination to other women. ‘Men can say anything they want, but if women decide to do it, just go for it. Nothing is going to stop you’, says Achara Ratanakasin, a novice monk candidate.