Thai women devotees attend an icebreaking session ahead of their ordination to be novice monks at the Songdhammakalyani monastery, Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand, December 3, 2018. Officially, only men can become monks and novices in Thailand under a Buddhist order that, since 1928, has forbidden the ordination of women. A growing number of women defy generations of Thai Buddhist tradition by becoming ordained as novice monks at the unrecognised all-female monastery. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha SEARCH "FEMALE MONKS" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.