are still limited attempts at structural reform as most of them are
concerned with the micro-level of solving the immediate needs or
the day-to-day problems of their communities. Macro-level perspectives
and praxis, therefore, are needed at the local, national, as well
as transnational levels in order to construct a more serious Buddhist
social ethics leading to Buddhist liberation theology. The Bhikkhuni
movement, unlike the Buddhist-based communities, has a macrophilosophical
approach based in Buddhist philosophy and feminist
liberation theory and is networking quite well internationally, yet it
faces obstacles at the local and national levels due to male hegemony
and institutionalized sexism in the Thai Buddhist clergy and community-at-large.
Buddhist liberation theology is, therefore, the hope of
Thai Buddhists to cope with contemporary problems at a structural
level in Thai society. Of course, Thailand also has persons of other
faiths such as Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, each of which has
its own liberation theology.