Buddhist Nuns: Between Past and Present

Abstract

One of the most debated issues in present-day Buddhism is the question of access of women to a full ordination as a nun (bhikṣ uṇ ī). Of the three extant ordination traditions -Dharmaguptaka, Theravāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda, it is only in the first one that both men and women are accepted without any dispute as fully ordained members of the monastic community. This situation has given rise to many discussions pleading for a revival of a full ordination ceremony in all Buddhist traditions. In these revival movements, special attention goes to several technical questions of monastic discipline (vinaya). The present article focuses on these questions, while also paying attention to the role played by concepts involving gender. As we will analyze in the first two parts, the technical questions, and the debates surrounding them, are not at all new. Right from the start of the first Buddhist communities, they gradually gained importance. This process thoroughly influenced the spread and the survival of the ordination ceremony for women throughout the history of Buddhism. The third part of our research returns to the present day, demonstrating how the technical questions of the past still play a major role in present-day discussions on status of female monastic members of the Buddhist community. Buddhist nun, vinaya, ordination ceremony When the Buddha allowed his stepmother Mahāprajāpatī to become a full member of his own monastic order, it marked the start of a twofold community (ubhayasaṃ gha), consisting of both monks (bhikṣ u) and nuns (bhikṣ uṇ ī). Rules were drawn up for this monastic community, and were eventually gathered in texts, labeled as vinayas (disciplinary texts). As a result of both the geographical spread of the Buddhist 604 A. Heirman / Numen 58 (2011) 603-631 communities over the Indian subcontinent, and of internal discussions on monastic rules, several vinayas came into being and at a certain point were finalized as separate legal codices that mutually exclude each other. Keywords1 This separation is certainly the case when ordination procedures are concerned. As H. Bechert puts it: "As a rule, monks belonging to different Nikāyas [schools] do not conduct joint Sanghakarmas [formal acts]. Though they may not always dispute the validity of each other's ordination, they do not recognize it as beyond dispute either. If there were doubts about the validity, the Sanghakarman would be questionable. If the validity of ordinations is called into question, the legitimation of the Sangha is endangered" (Bechert 1993:54). Although it is unsure at what time exactly the several vinayas started to operate as separate legal codices, it is clear that when the Chinese vinaya translations were made, starting from the third-fourth century c.e., the differences between the several vinayas were acknowledged by Indian and Chinese masters alike. See, among others, Bechert 1982:67-68 and 1993:54; von Hinüber 1999:89-91; Heirman 1999. 2) See Heirman, 2007. 3) Although at the end of the fifth ce...

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