Religion essay
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05BuddhismB.docx05 Buddhism B
Last time we looked at Buddhist ideas about higher beings (buddhas and bodhisattvas) and enlightenment (becoming an arhat). On one hand, there were traces of gender bias, mainly concerning the figure of a buddha. In particular, there was the traditional presumption that a buddha would always be in male form, not only in his final reincarnation but even in the later, more advanced stages of his reincarnational history. On the other hand, there were traces of gender equality in the notions of the arhat and the bodhisattva. The tradition accepted that women were capable of becoming an arhat: one who has achieved enlightenment and thus would pass into nirvana after death with no further reincarnations. Moreover, there were plenty of examples of female arhats including Mahapajapati (Gautama’s aunt, stepmother and the first nun), as well as Gautama’s two chief female disciples (Khema and Uppalavanna), who parallel the chief male disciples Sariputra and Mogallana. Also, there were examples of female bodhisattvas, including the very popular figures of Kwan Yin in China and Tara in Tibet. This week we look more closely at the actual historical experience of women in Buddhism, both as married women (wives and mothers) and as celibate followers (nuns).
Marriage and Celibacy
The life of a founder invariably has a crucial impact on the beliefs and practices of the religion and Buddhism is no exception. What Siddhartha Gautama did in terms of lifestyle choices has had an enormous influence on the way his followers have perceived and lived out their faith. So, let us now retrace some of those key biographical facts. First, the tradition claims that, at his birth, a number of priestly advisors predicted that, based on the mysterious marks on his body, the boy would grow up to become either a great ruler or a great spiritual leader. Whilst the former pleased his father, the latter worried him greatly. The king hoped that his son would follow him as leader of the Sakya people – smooth succession is a cherished hope of every monarch. So, the thought that Siddhartha might become a religious figure disturbed him and, to that end, the king was determined to ensure that the prince had the best possible life within the palace walls. There would be the finest food and clothing; comfortable living quarters; education, sport, entertainment and so on. It was to be an utterly pleasant, sheltered existence and the plan seemed to work. Siddhartha grew into an intelligent, healthy young man and, at some stage during his teens, he married a princess from a neighbouring kingdom. Her traditional name is Yasodhara and the accounts of their courtship and wedding suggest that the young couple genuinely loved each other. There are stories that Siddhartha won an athletic contest for Yasodhara’s hand. There are other stories that relate how Siddhartha chose Yasodhara from a line of hopeful candidates.
Prince Siddhartha marries Yasodhara
At any rate, the point is that Siddhartha married, thus fulfilling the Hindu duty to enter the ‘Householder’ phase of life, and also fulfilling his father’s hopes for a smooth succession to the throne. The next step was to have children, preferably a son, and we are told that this took some time – ten years in fact. But eventually Yasodhara fell pregnant and gave birth to a boy, pleasing Siddhartha’s father even more. According to the tradition, the boy’s name was “Rahula” but, given that the word means “chain” or “shackle”, scholars are suspicious that this is a later invention by the monks who authored the biographies and who would have seen Siddhartha’s family as an obstacle to his true destiny.
If things had continued along this path there would be no Buddhism today, so something happened to change the course of history and tradition calls the episode in question “the Four Sights”. Apparently, Siddhartha’s curiosity got the better of him one day and he went outside the palace to see what the world was like. What he discovered would change his life forever. We are told that he saw, for the first time, a sick person, an old person, a dead person and a forestdweller (hence the “four sights”). He suddenly realised that the material pleasures of the palace and the power that goes with being king were transient and could not provide lasting peace and happiness. Even rich, powerful people get sick, age and die. However, the poor, detached forestdweller seemed to be happy and at peace. So, for several weeks he wrestled within his troubled soul and, one fateful night, took the momentous decision to leave his family, his father and his entire career. It is called the night of his Renunciation when he quietly bid farewell to his sleeping wife and child, crept out of the palace and rode all night to the border of the kingdom. There he sent his assistant and horse back to the capital, while he cut his long princely hair and donned the yellow robes of the forestdweller.
Siddhartha leaves the palace Siddhartha cuts his hair
Siddhartha had joined the ranks of the Hindu renouncers. Inspired by the Upanishadic literature of the time, these men adopted a celibate, itinerant and mendicant lifestyle. In other words, they voluntarily gave up marriage and sexual activity (religious celibacy); they gave up fixed abode and travelled from village to village (itinerant); and they gave up most of their personal possessions, relying on the generosity of donors to provide food, clothing and accommodation (mendicancy). In Hindu theology, celibacy means channelling one’s sexual energy up the spine and into the brain where it enhances the capacity to meditate.
It is said that several years after he became Buddha, Gautama returned to his home town in Sakya and met his father, his wife and his son again. Somewhat mischievously, Yasodhara told Rahula to ask his father for his inheritance. The story goes that Gautama quietly agreed and began to teach him the Four Noble Truths - this now being his true wealth. So, the first important point to note from the story is that the founder experienced both married and celibate life. He was a husband and a father; but he was also a renouncer. Moreover, it is clear from the story that it is the second lifestyle – that of the celibate ascetic – that is more advanced. Although marriage is not evil in itself, the celibate way brought Siddhartha closer to nirvana and buddhahood.
Today, the Buddhist religious family consists of two basic sub-groups: the married laity and the celibate monks. Statistically there are many more of the former, but it is the latter that is considered to be the kernel of Buddhism. Not every lay person is married of course, but it is also true that not every Buddhist monk is celibate, and the best-known example is the Japanese Jodoshin school. However, they are a very small minority and the exception that proves the rule: namely, that becoming a monk usually involves renouncing married life and embracing celibacy like the founder. Although being married and having a family is not a bad thing, it is considered inferior to the higher way of the monk, who has, in theory, detached himself from the clinging involved in the marital relationship. They are closer to nirvana and the best that the lay person usually hopes for is to be reincarnated in their next life as a monk. Lay people can join a monastery for a short period in this life in order to gain good karma and this is often done during the wet season when monks traditionally make their “rains retreat”. In many Buddhist societies, young and old men shave their heads, don the saffron robes and become a “rain monk”.
Ideally the two communities complement each other and work together in a symbiotic relationship. The lay persons support the monks with practical donations such as food, clothing, money, property and so forth. In return the monks are expected to provide spiritual gifts to the lay persons: wisdom, knowledge and good karma.
A monk on his alms round
Weddings and Marriage
So, it is clear that marriage is inferior to celibacy in Buddhist theology and it is no surprise to find that Buddha Gautama had very little to say about marriage as such. Consequently, there is no developed theology of marriage in Buddhism, compared to other religions where matrimony is seen as a sacred union, reflecting higher, supernatural values. When Buddhist couples seek advice, they are directed to the example of Siddhartha Gautama who, while he was married, was a kind and considerate husband to his wife. But his decision to abandon her and their son in favour of the forest always reminds the Buddhist couple that there is an alternative, higher way. Similarly, there is no Buddhist wedding ceremony as such. In fact, in many communities, Buddhist couples are married by a celebrant from another religious tradition. For example, many Japanese Buddhists are often married in Shinto temples; many Chinese Buddhists are married in Daoist or Confucian venues; and many Thai Buddhists are married in civil ceremonies.
Traditionally, lay persons were not keen to have monks involved in their wedding since they were usually associated with funerals and it was thought that their vows of celibacy might affect the couple’s ability to have children. Indeed, it is only very recently that Buddhist monks are beginning to act as marriage celebrants, mainly in the Mahayana world. Conversely, the monks themselves were advised not to be involved with couples in romantic relationships. A famous passage from the Basket of Discipline (the Vinaya Pitaka) states:
Should a monk engage in conveying a man’s intention to a woman or a woman’s intention to a man, proposing marriage – even if only for a momentary liaison – it entails initial and subsequent meetings of the community.
A “meeting of the community” means that something inappropriate has taken place and a gathering of monks is needed to hear the confession, purge the bad karma and impose a penalty on the offender. In other words, the celibate monks were traditionally kept well away from matchmaking and weddings ceremonies altogether.
As a result, Buddhism contrasts strongly with Hinduism on these matters. On one hand, we have noted that Hinduism has a lot to say about the duty to marry and have children, the wife’s obedience toward her husband, the traditional endorsement of child marriages, the preference for sons, the restrictions and pressures placed on widows and the taboos regarding menstruation and birth. On the other hand, Buddhism takes little interest in any of these things and, consequently, the focus of feminist concern lies elsewhere: the depiction of women as sexual temptresses and the inferior treatment of nuns vis-à-vis monks.
Women as Sexual Temptresses
Given the importance placed on the monastic life, it is little wonder that a lot of Buddhist literature is aimed at helping the monks remain faithful to their lifestyle, in particular their vow of celibacy. In this context, women are often depicted as a dangerous source of sexual temptation. Of course, most monks live in single sex monasteries and on the few occasions that women (nuns or laity) might also live or at least stay in the complex, they are given separate quarters. Nevertheless, in the course of their daily routine, monks will encounter both men and women: in their dealings with the laity outside the monastery (for example during the alms rounds or in visits to homes) or hosting male and female visitors inside the monastery for the purpose of meditation, prayer, sermons, talks and so on. Female nuns are considered less of a threat since they also are committed to celibacy and they deliberately downplay physical beauty by shaving their hair, avoiding makeup and wearing traditional monastic robes. In some ways this minimising or concealing physical attractiveness in favour of spiritual beauty is reminiscent of the Muslim veil (see later in the course).
Buddhist nuns with shaved heads and robes
On the other hand, lay women are not bound by such customs and thus may constitute more of a threat. Indeed, the dilemma of a Buddhist monk who has been smitten by the beauty of a young girl is a reasonably common theme in theatre and literature across Asia.
This theme appears on a number of occasions in the traditional story of the Buddha’s life. On the very night of his Enlightenment, as he sat preparing himself under the bodhi tree, the tempter spirit Mara appeared, intent on distracting Gautama from his cause. In fact, Mara features on many occasions during his life, always with the aim of obstructing Gautama from making progress or thwarting his plans. Mara roughly parallels the character of Satan in the Abrahamic tradition and it is interesting to compare the temptations of Gautama and the temptations of Jesus (none of which are sexual in nature according to the gospel account). In Gautama’s case, Mara first used the weapon of fear, calling forth the terrifying forces of nature but to no avail: Gautama remained unmoved and calm. So, his next ploy was to bring his three daughters, who danced seductively before the seated prince. Again, Gautama was unmoved, and Mara retreated in resignation. Some commentators think that the figures of Mara and Satan should not be taken literally but, rather, represent deep psychological fears and desires in the men concerned, reflecting the personal struggle with their own ‘demons’. It is not the last time that sexual desire emerges in the story of the Buddha. Later on, there are episodes where enemies falsely accuse Gautama of having an affair with various women, some of whom are complicit in the plot. In each case the Buddha is able to demonstrate his innocence, but again it is feminine beauty that is seen as the potential stumbling block.
Mara’s daughters tempt Siddhartha
The basic tactic used by Gautama and his monks to deal with sexual desire is to distance themselves from women as much as possible. There is a famous dialogue between the Buddha and his personal assistant Ananda which goes like this:
Ananda: How are we to conduct ourselves Lord, with regard to womankind?
Buddha: As not seeing them Ananda
Ananda: But if we should see them, what are we to do?
Buddha : No talking Ananda
Ananda: But if they should speak to us Lord, what are we to do?
Buddha : Keep awake Ananda. [Mahaparinirvana Sutra]
Similar sentiments are expressed in a well-known monastic proverb that considers even a simple conversation with a woman to be more dangerous than a range of extremely perilous situations:
Go parley with a man with sword in hand;
Use question with a goblin; sit ye close
Beside the venomed snake whose bite is death;
But never alone with a female talk [Anguttara Nikaya.III.67-68]
A common practice among the monks, even to this day, is to meditate on the shallowness of physical beauty and the ultimate emptiness of sexual desire. This often takes the form of “cultivating a loathing” for the physical. Thus, instead of thinking about how beautiful and attractive a woman’s body can be, the monk is taught to think more profoundly about how unattractive the human body actually is: a messy mixture of tissue, muscle, bones, joints, organs and bodily fluids such as blood, sweat, tears and saliva. This deliberate focusing on the more repulsive aspects of human physiology is aimed at reversing sexual desire and reinforcing the commitent to celibacy. Commenatators also note that it was a similar experience that convinced prince Siddhartha to leave home and head for the forest. It is said that on the night of his Renunciation, he walked into one of the main rooms of the palace and saw the royal dancing girls asleep, sprawled over the furniture in unflattering positions, with dishevelled hair and clothing, snoring and dribbling. The shock of seeing this “other” side of what were usually beautiful maidens, left no doubt that he had to seek truth, beauty and happiness beyond the physical.
Siddhartha sees the dancing girls sleeping
Another strategy is for the monk to conjure up the image of a beautiful young woman and then imagine her ageing rapidly before his eyes. Thus the monk sees the young nubile figure gradually become older and frailer and eventually turn into a decaying corpse. Again it is a graphic technique to drive home the transience of physical beauty and enable the monk to remain detached from sexual desire. The same technique was used by Buddha Gautama to convince Khema, the beautiful young wife of King Bimbisara, to abandon her lifestyle and become a nun.
Khema and the vision of the beautiful maid
Feminists criticise these texts for fostering gynophobia and for always taking the viewpoint of the troubled male monk without ever discussing the problem from the perspective of the women who are seen as sexual traps. As a result, the critics argue that such stories and practices can easily degrade the female body and place the blame on women when, in most cases, it is the monk’s own sexual desires that are the true source of the problem. This point is illustrated by the story of two monks who were on a journey when they came across a young maiden by the river bank. She needed to cross but was unable since the water was too deep and the current too strong. One monk was reluctant to get involved but the other kindly offered to carry her on his back. When they reached the other side, the monk let the maiden down and she went on her way. The two monks also continued their walk. After a few hours, the first monk spoke up and criticised his fellow monk. “As a celibate monk, you shouldn’t have carried that young girl across the river” he complained. His colleague replied “Friend, I put that girl down hours ago; it seems that you have not”.
As we discussed earlier, the Basket of Discipline (Vinaya Pitaka) is a collection of hundreds of rules concerning monks and nuns. What is interesting is that a large proportion of those rules concern actions and situations that could undermine a monk’s vow of celibacy and the range of punishments associated with these. For example, there are four grave offences (parajikas) that result in automatic and instant expulsion from a monastery: sexual intercourse; theft; murder; and lying about one’s spiritual advancement. Not only is sexual impropriety included among the four, but it heads the list. Apart from such a serious breach of celibacy, the Vinaya also lists many occasions that a monk should diligently avoid such as travelling alone with a woman or allowing a woman to make special robes for him. In fact, it is a general rule that a Buddhist monk should never come into physical contact with a woman, including shaking hands.
Lay Women
It is now time to consider outstanding examples of women disciples from both ordinary lay life and the order of nuns. In terms of lay women, one such case is Visakha. She was the daughter of a rich man and a contemporary of Buddha Gautama, meeting him when she was only seven years old. According to the tradition, she was not only a devout follower, but she was a very effective teacher, successfully converting her entire household. Recognising her wisdom, Buddha Gautama appointed her as mediator in disputes between nuns, even though she was not a nun herself. She is also remembered as the donor of the Pubbarama monastery, where Gautama spent a number of his rain retreats. Her significant material support to the founder echoes the figures of Mary Magdalene and Khadijah in Christianity and Islam respectively (see later). There are many similar tales of outstanding lay women, especially from the Mahayana school since the incentive to leave the lay state and become a nun was not as strong as in the Theravada. That is because the Mahayana school speaks of bodhisattvas who can help ordinary folk on their journey to nirvana. It is not entirely up to oneself, and thus there is less pressure to follow a radical lifestyle such as monk or nun.
The Tibetan tradition has also promoted lay life for women, inspired by the example of Machig Labdron, who was an outstanding practitioner of Buddhism during the 12th century CE.
Machig Labdron
Today, more and more educated Western women are emerging as scholars, writers and teachers within the Buddhist world. Some examples include:
Nancy Wilson Ross Elsie Mitchell Sharon Salzburg Emila Heller
This “mushrooming” of lay women teachers has become a major feminist issue within Buddhism, which traditionally saw the male monk as the main source of doctrinal authority. Understandably this new generation of lay female thinkers expect to be acknowledged and respected for their contribution, but there are also signs of traditional opposition and patriarchal resistance to the idea that a lay woman could teach at all, let alone teach men. Commentators speculate that a new style of Buddhism may be in genesis, possibly blurring the traditional boundaries between lay and monastic, male and female.
Nuns
Beginnings
There has been a traditional difference between the lay state and the monastic state from the very earliest days of Buddhism and we now need to investigate how quickly the issue of female monks (or nuns) arose and how it played out. As you may recall, Buddha Gautama delivered his first sermon to his five former companions, all of whom were male and all of whom accepted his teaching and became the first monks. In the years that followed, Gautama and his monks travelled around northern India attracting other followers. Many of these were men and women who chose to remain in the lay state as married persons with families. But there were also many men who chose to shave their head and don the yellow robes of the bhikkhu (monk). These men were of different ages and came from different castes within society, yet Gautama adopted an inclusive attitude. In contrast to the Hindu background, Gautama did not think that caste was a criterion of admission, nor was it a criterion of rank. In his thinking, seniority was based on years in the monastery and not one’s caste, and indeed he once famously made a low caste monk, named Upali, senior to a group of Brahmin candidates who had just joined – much to their initial chagrin. Similarly, age was not a major barrier and Gautama accepted novices as young as 20 years old. In fact, this minimum age was set soon after objections arose concerning the admission into the monastery of his own son Rahula when he was still a young boy. So, caste and age were largely irrelevant, but what about gender?
Mahapajapati asks Buddha Gautama to establish the order of nuns
The gender issue arose a few years after his Enlightenment, when Gautama returned to his home town. Whilst there, his aunt and stepmother, Mahapajapati, approached him with a request to become a bhikkhuni (nun) along with “five hundred other women”. The numbers may not be historical, but the suggestion is that, after some years, there was a considerable group of women who wished to enter the monastic life alongside their male counterparts. [Note: Gautama’s natural mother had died at childbirth and her sister (his aunt), Mahapajapati, married his father and became his stepmother].
In fact, we just do not know, but the response did not dishearten a persistent Mahapajapati. She and her fellow applicants shaved their heads, donned the yellow monastic robes and followed Gautama on a long, arduous journey to his next stop. As they waited outside the monastery, Ananda once again inquired about Gautama’s refusal to admit them. Ananda then asked the pertinent question: “Is it because a woman cannot attain enlightenment (arhat)? To this, Gautama answered that a woman could achieve enlightenment and become an arhat. After stating that, Gautama relented and admitted his aunt and her friends to the monastic life. It was a momentous decision, even though there had been reluctance and opposition at first. Indeed, it is very rare that a disciple of the Buddha gets the upper hand in a dialogue, let alone reveals something that, apparently, the Buddha did not see before. For historians, the very awkwardness of the story (that the master is “shown up” by Ananda) suggests that it probably was an historical event rather than a later creation.
Buddha Gautama relents and admits women to the monastic life
What happens next according to the sources is also unexpected and suggests residual sexism in the attitude of Buddha Gautama. Despite his eventual egalitarian stance on gender (matching his position on caste and age), Gautama then predicted that, because he had relented and allowed women to become nuns, his teaching would now only last for 500 years and not the usual 1000 years. The context of this concept is that the teaching of a Buddha gradually fades away over time and this is why a new Buddha in the series is needed. So, when Buddha Gautama’s teaching is forgotten, the next Buddha, Maitreya, will come and remind us of it. The implication is clear: the admission of women will undermine the longevity of the teaching itself and accelerate the coming of the next Buddha. Moreover, the sources go on to describe how Gautama then imposed 8 “heavy rules” (garudhammas) on nuns (but not on monks).
The Eight Garudhammas:
1. A nun must salute a monk even if she has been in the order for 100 years and he has only been in the order for one day.
2. A nun must reside within 6 hours travelling distance from a monastery of monks for advice.
3. A nun must consult with monks on fortnightly observance days.
4. A nun must spend the rains retreat under the orders of both monks and nuns.
5. A nun’s offences must be dealt with by both monks and nuns.
6. A nun can only obtain ordination by both monks and nuns.
7. A nun cannot rebuke a monk.
8. A nun cannot advise a monk but the converse should be the case.
These 8 rules are found in the Vinaya and they are very clear regarding the relative status of monks and nuns (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis). For one thing, the first garudhamma indicates that the principle of seniority being based on the time spent in the monastery (rather than caste) seems to have been overturned in the case of gender. In each of the garudhammas, priority is given to the male over the female irrespective of age or experience. Moreover, we will see how rule 6 became a serious problem in terms of the ensuring that the order of nuns continued and did not die out in certain parts of the Buddhist world.
Some scholars are doubtful that the 8 garudhammas were imposed by Gautama upon his newly ordained nuns, arguing that the literary style of this passage differs from those around it, thus suggesting that the heavy rules were added to the text by a later hand (see Karma Lekse in the second video below).
Another issue that is often raised in the context of gender equality is the disparity between the number of rules for monks and nuns found in the First Basket (Vinaya Pitaka). There are 227 rules for monks and 311 for nuns. At first glance it would seem that there is a far greater restriction placed on female followers than male followers of the Buddha. But commentators often note that many of the extra rules for nuns were established precisely to protect them from misinterpretation and abuse. For example, some of them prohibit nuns from performing chores for monks such as sewing and washing – chores that were generally carried out by women in homes and lay society. Otherwise, the daily life of a monk and a nun followed the same basic routine: practical chores, meditation, lessons, receiving visitors, alms round and so forth. Similarly, nuns also shaved their heads and wore standard coloured robes in the same way as their male counterparts – a sartorial sign of equality.
How radical was the (eventual) decision by Buddha Gautama to allow women to join the inner circle of his movement alongside the monks? Many think that it was just as radical as his decision to ignore caste and age when admitting candidates for the monastic life. Indeed, traditional Hinduism (the Four Life Stages theory) encouraged men to leave family to become a forest-dweller and an ascetic, but it was not so enthusiastic that women do so. We noted some exceptions when we looked at Hinduism (remember Maitreyi?) but they were exceptional. So, the Buddhist movement did open up for women a whole new career possibility, which was not previously available. It is worth noting here that the other religious “renouncer” movement that commenced at about the same time in northern India – Jainism – also admitted nuns into its ranks at a very early stage.
This new lifestyle proved to be very popular, as is evidenced by the claim that “500 women” accompanied Mahapajapati in her initial bid to gain Buddha’s permission to become nuns. In fact, some think that the Buddha imposed the 8 heavy rules to stop a “flood” of women joining (see Dhammananda in the second video below). Texts describe how the first generation of Buddhist nuns felt “liberated” from (most of) the traditional “five woes” of a woman:
The five woes of a woman:
1. parting from their family at time of marriage
2. serving their husbands
3. menstruation
4. pregnancy
5. childbirth
(Clearly it didn’t liberate a nun from number 3.)
The same sentiments of freedom and opportunity are reflected in some of the poems that were composed by the earliest nuns and collected in a section of the Three Baskets known as the Therigatha (“Songs of the Elder Sisters”). This is an anthology of 73 poems, which parallels a similar collection of poems written by the earliest monks, known as the Theragatha (“Songs of the Elder Brothers”). Rita Gross has described the Therigatha as “the most under-utilized resource in Buddhism”, and Nancy Schuster Barnes declares that it provides “images of women as fully enlightened beings, quick-witted teachers, compassionate friends, self-sacrificing saints and courageous heroines”.
For supporters of nuns, the large numbers that entered and the joyful satisfaction that they found in their new religious life was ample justification for Buddha Gautama’s decision to admit women into the monastic life.
Some excerpts from the Therigatha
Decline
Despite such a promising start, the history of Buddhist nuns is a sad one in many ways – a “checkered career” as Denise Carmody puts it. In many parts of the Buddhist world, especially in the southern (Theravadan) tradition, the order of nuns faded into obscurity. The main reason was the lack of support from the laity (men and women) who preferred male monks to assist at funerals and other life-cycle moments. There seems to have been an endemic prejudice among ordinary folk that women should stay at home as wives and mothers, and not be running off to the convent. That vocation was for men. As a result, outstanding lay women were often more respected and accepted than nuns, who were often poorly educated as a result of the lack of support. The other major factor was the 6th garudhamma (remember the “heavy rules” above?), which stipulated that a nun must be ordained by both monks and nuns. As the numbers of nuns dwindled in some places, it became more and more difficult to gather enough nuns to hold a valid ordination ceremony.
As a result, the Theravadan order of nuns completely died out in places such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma); and the tradition never even got going in Thailand. In all three places, there have been small numbers of women who have lived a lifestyle similar to that of the fully ordained nun (bhikkhuni). These women are often called the “ten precept mothers” - based on the idea that all Buddhists follow five basic moral precepts known as the Pancasila, but monks and nuns undertake an extra five as a result of their ascetical lifestyle. In Myanmar such women are called “thila sin” and dress in pink robes; in Thailand they are known as the “mae jis” and dress in white robes with shaved heads. Importantly, the ordination of nuns was revived in Sri Lanka in the 1990s.
Thila Shin in Myanmar (Burma) Mae jis in Thailand
The case of Thailand is particularly interesting because the main Buddhist leader (the Supreme Patriarch) issued an edict in 1928 banning monks from ordaining any woman as nun or novice, declaring that the monastic life was “a man’s calling alone”. The Thai Senate later revoked his decree as unconstitutional and allowed foreign nuns to work in Thailand but, as elsewhere in the Theravadan world, they are not widely accepted. A key figure in this struggle for greater recognition is Bhikkhuni Dhammananda. Born in Thailand, she worked as a university professor for many years until she gained ordination as a Theravadan nun in Sri Lanka in 2003. She returned to Thailand and is at the forefront of efforts to gain greater acceptance for nuns in her native land.
Sri Lankan nuns – ordination was revived in the 1990s Bhikkhuni Dhammananda
The situation is very different in the northern (Mahayana) school where the order of nuns has survived, and even thrived, in the main. Chinese nuns (and their monastic brothers) experienced persecution under Communism but have maintained an unbroken lineage. Similarly, there are many nuns in Taiwan and South Korea.
Taiwanese nuns Korean nuns
The exception has been Tibet where it seems that full ordination was never established possibly because, as in the Theravadan world, there was more support for male monks and lay women (in the tradition of Machig Labdron mentioned earlier). However, the current Dalai Lama supports the Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP) and many Western women are also being ordained in this tradition.
In Australia, a Taiwanese order of nuns runs the Nan Tien temple that was established near Wollongong in 1990. In the Perth hills, a group of Theravadan nuns runs a community at Dhammasara, with an Australian nun as abbot.
Nan Tien Temple (Wollongong)
Dhammasara (Perth)
Videos
Dalai Lama on Women 10 mins
Listen for
· the Dalai Lama’s initial and final comments
· the comments of the first nun about “subtle prejudice”
· the comments of the second nun about being in the “female form”
Issues concerning ordination 8 mins
Global Buddhist Conference Perth 2006
Listen for
· Why the 8 garudhammas were given (Bhikkhuni Dhammananda)
· Why women have “no institutional voice” (Karma Lekse)
· Whether the 8 rules were from Buddha Gautama (Karma Lekse)
· What DNA suggests about species and gender boundaries (Yifa)
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