Monastic Education in the Margins: Chanting, Marginalia, and Intertextuality in Myanmar Buddhist Nun-Making

This paper looks at chanting, marginalia, and intertextuality in the making of Myanmar Buddhist nuns, preparing them for the government monastic exams. I demonstrate the need to understand both Buddhist texts themselves and how these texts are used, shaped, practiced, and in turn how these processes influence Buddhist knowledge communities. I find that understanding marginalia and chanting is instrumental in understanding the changes that have occurred in the transfer of knowledge within the last few decades. Without the observation, participation, and the questioning of teachers, students, and their methods and practices, we would only see scribbles on a page with no context.