Gabriela Diaz

Professor Bandara
Final Paper
November 5, 2016

Female ordination in Buddhism

The Buddhist global community, like most religions includes both larger lay populous
and a smaller but highly respected clergy populous. Buddhism has both male monks and female
nuns included in its clergy. Like many religions, female lay members are generally more
participatory in their religion with higher rates of participation then men but despite this female
clergy has generally been seen as lower in the clerical hierarchy and somewhat subordinate in
many aspects. Within Buddhism a very senior nun is subordinate to monk who may have just
been ordained that day; even if the monk is still of relatively young age in comparison with the
nun he is considered higher up. This shows that like in many religions or perhaps the cultures
that these religions have been created in, are still struggling with female quality in both daily and
religious life.
The idea of female ordination within the Buddhist religion is credited to Buddhas aunt
Gotami, who also became his stepmother after the death of Buddhas mother. After Buddha came
back from his years away, Gotami embraced her stepsons message of enlightenment. In fact she
embraced it so much that she was ultimately drawn to monastic life. Up until then, there were no
nuns and the concept had not been established or brought forth. So Gotami with a large group of
women in tow discussed the topic of female ordination with Buddha. Buddhism was popular

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with the lower castes and attracted everyday people as it did not require the self-mortification of
Jainism or being born into a high caste as in Hinduism. Despite having the appeal of the
everyday man being a driving factor of its popularity, this equality and availability of
spiritualism did not seem to extend to the clergy. Buddha, most likely to his step-moms
displeasure, said no.
Eventually with more discussion and the influence of Ananda, Buddha decided to permit
female ordination. The reason Buddha initially said no has been credited to many different
reasons by Buddhist scholars. Some say the relationship between monks and nuns would make
celibacy a complicated matter, others say that the culture was not accepting of women in
religious positions or that the Buddhist philosophy was not established enough and would rock
the boat with the other majority religions of the time. Buddhism which was in its infancy, only
about five years or so after Buddha came back would only work with public support. The culture
surrounding women, power, religion and equality then may not have been accepting of these
ideas, possibly risking Buddhism being seen as too strange and failing to gain momentum.
There are no texts or evidence that Buddha viewed women as inferior in general but
especially not in a spiritual sense. Buddha praised many nuns including his stepmother and did
not believe women were any less likely to attain enlightenment. Buddha most likely was simply
worried about the precarious position that Buddhist nuns would be in due to the cultural climate
surrounding them. He also imposed rules that protected nuns from monks that may have intended
to take advantage, this shows a large amount of thought and care about the idea of womens
ordination on the part of Buddha. None the less some of the rules he imposed such as the
hierarchal order which may have been seen as normal at the time, still have consequences that
ripple through time and hit hard at the nuns of today in terms of ordination and support.
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As the world has taken steps to create an egalitarian and democratic future, the
acceptance and rethinking of traditional way of doing things have occurred. Acceptance of
women as independent individuals that are here to not just be seen but to be involved in
medicine, business, government and any other sphere of our lives is seen as a goal we strive for .
In the clergy and Buddhism as a whole this is no different. Many women play important parts in
their temples and act as directors and community leaders. That being said, nuns still continually
struggle to gain acceptance and equality with the male counterparts.
In many Asian countries where Buddhism is either the majority religion or is followed by
a large percentage of the population, well established temples for men is always an option for
those young men drawn to the monastic life. For young women and girls who strive for the same,
its not always that easy. In many countries the female monasteries have not been able to carry on
their lineage leaving questions as to how to re-establish it. In other countries a female monastery
has never actually been established at all. Countries of primarily Mahayana Buddhism have the
ability for females to become fully ordained and have had a long line of nuns. In countries such
as Tibet, Nepal and India where Vajrayana Buddhism is much more prevalent, a nun must stop at
novice because there is simply no established lineage for full ordination. Although not being able
to gain full ordination is unfortunate and frustrating, in comparison some countries lack any type
of female ordination at all whether it be full or novice. In southeastern Asian countries such as
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar there is no process for females wanting to become
monastic members leaving them with no option to formally become part of Buddhist monastic
life.
Despite this many of these women have formed their own groups outside the formal
means of ordination. Unfortunately going out on their own comes with a price, these nuns do not
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have support from the widespread populace or formal Buddhist organizations and so are usually
poor and accept this fact in order to continue on with their goals. Although all clergy in the
Buddhist religion rely on food from the lay populous, they also have support in the form of
donations and respect. These rouge female nuns do not have this and so struggle to receive food
or public support.
The support of nuns has been growing with high ranking monastic members showing
their support. Others are not so supportive and claim that without 10 ordained nuns being present
for the ordination ceremony there is no way to re-establish female monasteries in countries
where lineage has died out. Many have counteracted this, arguing that nun ordination is more
than possible as nuns from other countries where the lineage is still present such as in the
Mahayana majority countries can simply take a plane ride to be present for the ordination. This
itself does propose other problems such as the differences in each philosophy and sect of
Buddhism. Recently a group of Sri Lankan nuns where ordained by Korean and Taiwanese nuns,
but many monks did not accept this as valid. In addition the more female nuns there are the more
competition there is for resources by lay patronage making monastic life competitive for a group
of women who struggle for their countries support and acceptance. Full ordination for nuns has
received cautious support of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama may have been cautious as the full
ordination of women may put stress on the already quite repressed Tibetan community under
China. This in some ways reflects the difficulties that Gotami had with her cultural surrounding
in the very beginning of female monasticism and the pressure felt by Buddhist leaders to take
into account both the nuns but also the surrounding community in order to maintain unity.
The equality of women in the monastic Buddhist life has mirrored the acceptance of
women in the secular sphere. Many women in areas like Korea and Taiwan receive not just full
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ordination but also an education and the ability to involve themselves in leadership roles and
gain community respect. These nuns have acceptance by the rest of the monastic members and
the lay populous. Unfortunately like it is outside of the monastic community, equality often
changes at a different pace depending on cultural and historical factors. While some nuns have
great respect and equality others must live a life of poverty in the name of creating a new group
of nuns in a country that has lost their lineage or never had one to begin with. Despite the
sacrifices the of these nuns, the support of their fellow Mahayana nuns and other denominations
around the world, apparent in the first gathering of international Buddhist nuns in 1987 has
helped their cause and fight for acceptance. Ultimately it is the persistence and faith that many of
these nuns have that leads them to go out on their own and be role models and religious leader to
the future generations even when they had none of their own to follow.
The long history of female ordination in Buddhism reflects both the views of the time as
well as the cultural surroundings that present day nuns live in. The Buddhas views of female
nuns has both helped and hindered Buddhist nuns but ultimately it is how one interprets his
teachings. After Buddhas death the concept of female ordination remained controversial and still
is in countries that follow Vajrayana and Theravada traditions. Questions of nuns place in the
hierarchy and re-starting broken lineages remain the most controversial topic within these
countries. Many monks will neither ordain the nuns themselves but will also not accept
ordination from a nun in a different tradition leaving potential nuns with nowhere to turn. As
many of these societies are still highly male dominated the question of whether or not its an
equality issues or a religious issue has been asked. Because of the social views at the time of
Buddha its fair to argue that religion tends to automatically pick up the views of those who
practice it making this issue both a religious and a gender issue. The controversy revolves around
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whether we should get rid of certain parts of a religion and therefore ridding ourselves of these
viewpoints and unequal practices or follow the text but possibly ignore issues of inequality.
Throwing out or changing parts of religion seems dishonorable and sacrilegious to some while
others say we must also look at these ancient text both religiously and historically and that
changing it is for the better. As religion and social views intertwine together the controversy
involving theses nuns both now as well as shorty after Buddhas death is how Buddhism should
ultimately move forward and whether it should adapt to this world and our changing viewpoints
or remain the same.

Works cited
Mitchell, Do W., and Sarah H. Jacoby. Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience. 3rd ed.
New York City: Oxford UP, 2. Print.

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