Ordination of Bhikkhunis in the Theravada Tradition

[SedesDomi]

At 6:15 p.m. on August 29, 2010, at a secluded mountaintop hermitage overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County, California, four women, all long-time dedicated practitioners, were declared fully ordained as bhikkhunis, Buddhist nuns, in the Thai Theravada tradition. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere, and it was epochal since their preceptors were nuns in their same tradition.

Although the Buddha ordained both monks and nuns, the order of nuns disappeared a thousand years later when it became clear that there were no nuns available to ordain new nuns. Keeping strictly with tradition (and in keeping with patriarchal pressures) the rule that nuns needed to be ordained by nuns brought the order of nuns to an end, and women were able to join a community and practice in only an inferior status. The pressure brought by women ardent to practice and have roles and recognition comparable to men has enabled some women, trained in the Theravada Thai tradition, to be ordained by nuns with Sri Lankan ordination. The nuns ordained Sunday join the now small group of recognized bhikkhunis in the Thai Forest tradition that can now continue to grow.

The formal ceremony began with a procession of monastics entering single file though the gathered community to take their places in a simply constructed pavilion that had been decorated with flowers. Members of the community shared rose petals from prepared baskets lining the way so they could strew the petals along the path as the monks and nuns passed by. I thought of the similar use of flower petals at weddings understood how in both cases the flowers are marking holy space in preparation for a sacrament.

 

[IHeartAquinas]

That’s really cool, actually.

It’s a shame, though, that I watched a Nat Geo program on the evolution of Buddhism which stated that no matter how senior the nun, she would always be lower in status to the most inferior monk. It kind of shed a light on the way the West tends to perceive Buddhism as this religion of egalitarian love. shrug At least these women have managed to overcome a hurdle they so desperately wanted to overcome.