Sakyadhita Pilgrimage in Asia: On the Trail of the Buddhist Women's Network

Abstract

Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women was established in 1987 to address issues of gender equality in Buddhist societies and Buddhist institutions. Since then, through a series of innovative biannual conferences, Sakyadhita has worked to link women from different Buddhist traditions and cultural backgrounds and provide them with a forum where women's voices can be heard. These conferences have generated a vibrant international Buddhist women's movement that works for the welfare of the world's estimated 300,000 Buddhist women. Because Buddhist institutions in Asian countries typically function independently and there is no central authority to oversee them or create policies, Sakyadhita's intra-Buddhist communications network for women represents a major breakthrough. To keep their fingers on the pulse of this rapidly expanding movement, Karma Lekshe Tsomo and Christie Yu-ling Chang, Sakyadhita's current president and vice-president, traveled to Malaysia, Vietnam, and India in 2005-06 for a month to document changes in the making for Buddhist women.

Sakyadhita International: Gender Equity in Ultramodern Buddhism

“…The Sakyadhita newsletter contains many descriptive articles on Sakyadhita’s activities. Several books have also been published arising from Sakyadhita conference proceedings (Tsomo, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009a), and Karma Lekshe Tsomo (2007, 2009b), a leading scholar of gender and Buddhism, and Sakyadhita’s co-founder, has written an academic journal article and also a book chapter on Sakyadhita in an edited collection on TransBuddhism . Fenn and Koppedrayer (2008; Koppedrayer and Fenn, 2006) have also outlined Sakyadhita’s achievements and have conducted interviews with participants from the sixth (2000) and ninth (2006) Sakyadhita conferences in two academic articles.…”

Women In Mahayana Buddhism

“…Dalai Lama XIV who delivered a welcoming speech in support of the aspirations of female Buddhists. During this event, laypeople and nuns from various Buddhist traditions and different countries exchanged views on the female status in their lay and monastic lives (Tsomo, 2006).…”

“…This organization aims to support all Buddhist women, regardless of their spiritual dedication and status. Among other goals of the organization are improving the status of women throughout the world, maintaining dialogue and harmony between representatives of Buddhism and other religious traditions; encouraging research on the status of women practicing Buddhism; maintaining, the peace through distribution of humanistic ideas of the The Buddha (Tsomo, 2006).…”