In 1996 the first public ordination of Theravāda bhikkhunī  took place in India, spurring the creation of the first new lineage of female Theravāda monastics in a millennium. Despite debates about their legitimacy, this new lineage spread quickly within Sri Lanka, and then to Thailand in 2001. Because ordaining women remains illegal in Thailand, new bhikkhunī fly to Sri Lanka for their upasampadā ritual, resulting in a strong and continuing international network. This does not mean, however, that the bhikkhunī movement is a homogeneous or entirely harmonious one. Using data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and publications by bhikkhunī in Sri Lanka and Thailand, I look specifically at how one of the largest Thai bhikkhunī communities, Nirotharam, centered in Chiang Mai, navigates their local and trans-local contexts. These bhikkhunī localize their practice in northern-Thai forms of Buddhist monasticism. This gains Nirotharam support from local northern monks, who use their patronage of the bhikkhunī as a form of criticism against the central Thai Sangha, though the women themselves vocally support the central Thai Sangha. This careful mediation between local and national support is further complicated by the Thai bhikkhunī's dependence on Sri Lankan monastics for ordinations. Nirotharam bhikkhunī are in constant communication with, and under surveillance by, Sri Lankan monastics thanks to modern technological developments. This novel extended relationship between a fraternity and its ordination source has altered both the Thai bhikkhunī’s and the Sri Lankan Monastics practices, beliefs, and narratives. This thesis argues that the Nirotharam fraternity identity is produced through that process of constant negotiation with their local, national, and transnational contexts. Furthermore, on a local, national, and trans-local level, Nirotharam has substantially altered their network in turn. This work explores what it means to be a monastic, the role of lineage, the self-conscious struggle to define the term “Theravāda,” and how regional Buddhist projects may develop differently as a result of local specificities.