Bhutan Buddhist leader ordains 144 women, resuming tradition | National News

The ceremony “is of historic significance for all girls in Buddhism and brings Tibetan Buddhism into the twenty first century,” stated Bhikshuni Jampa Tsedroen, a German Tibetan creator. “For these nuns, it’s a main alternative to display their skills to contribute to Buddhism.”

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Most of the new bhikshunis are Bhutanese, however some got here to Bhutan from different international locations in Asia. They’re all being ordained within the Tibetan lineage.

A Fb put up on the central monastic physique of Bhutan web page posted the information, which was confirmed by Damcho Diana Finnegan, an ordained Buddhist nun and co-founder of the Dharmadatta Nun’s Neighborhood in Virginia.

Requested in regards to the ceremony, Finnegan referred to as it a “main step in the direction of ending the institutionalized inequality between women and men in Tibetan Buddhism.”

The ceremony is the end result of a decades-long motion for full ordination for ladies within the Tibetan lineage, which has confronted heavy resistance from top-level monks, students and political leaders throughout Asia. The bhikshuni motion has picked up steam in recent times as girls worldwide have sought to revive a follow of ordaining girls established, they are saying, by the Buddha himself, however which slowly disappeared from a lot of the Buddhist world till now.

After the demise of the Buddha, feminine monks have been generally thought of one of many key components of the four-pronged very best Buddhist neighborhood, consisting of lay males, lay girls, male monks and feminine monks. Nevertheless, over time, struggle, famine and illness took the lives of bhikshunis throughout Southeast Asia and Tibet.

Ladies have continued to reside ascetic lives as nuns however have been barred from taking the subsequent step to full ordination. Formally their standing was held again by guidelines of the monastic code that require bhikshunis to be ordained by different bhikshunis, who didn’t exist.

To interrupt this bind, some girls have taken different routes to full ordination. In 1996, a bunch of Sri Lankan nuns was ordained with assist from Korean bhikshunis of the Mahayana lineage, which has by no means been damaged. Since then, tons of of bhikshunis have been ordained in Sri Lanka, in what Tsedroen describes as an “ecumenical ceremony,” primarily reviving the inhabitants.

However in Bhutan, a handful of monks have taken ordination into their very own palms and offered ordination to nuns with out the presence of bhikshunis. Usually, this ceremony is barely granted to a small variety of girls, and by no means on the dimensions seen on Tuesday. In line with Finnegan, an ordination this massive ensures a sangha, or bhikshuni neighborhood, that can persist properly into the long run.

“All different lineages of Buddhism have had sanghas of ladies totally ordain as monks. That is the primary time Tibetan Buddhist girls are given that chance,” she stated.

The present Dalai Lama has lengthy inspired bhikshuni ordination vows, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, a outstanding monk within the Theravada lineage, practiced throughout India and Southeast Asia, has appealed to his legion of supporters to advocate for the bhikshuni motion. Influential Tibetan scholar-monk Geshe Lharampa Bhikshu Rinchen Ngudrup made a powerful case for bhikshuni ordination in 2007 throughout a chat on the first Worldwide Congress on Buddhist Ladies’s Position within the Sangha after years of analysis.

As well as, lay individuals throughout Asia have referred to as consideration to the wonderful conduct of nuns compared with male spiritual leaders. Scandals, resembling fraud at Wat Dhammakaya in Thailand and an uptick in sexual assault expenses in opposition to Tibetan lamas, have been rocking Buddhist communities all over the world.

Thai journalist Sanitsuda Ekachai referred to as consideration to this dichotomy in her guide “Conserving the Religion: Thai Buddhism on the Crossroads,” encouraging lay individuals to think about the way forward for the monastic order and the way feminine monks might enhance it.

Even with highly effective voices and a clear monitor file behind the motion, gender fairness within the Tibetan monastic order had but to take off on the big scale that occurred as we speak in Bhutan.

“This historic ordination ceremony could properly create additional strain on different Buddhist communities in numerous international locations to make full ordination obtainable to nuns inside Tibetan Buddhism,” stated Susanne Mrozik, affiliate professor of faith at Mount Holyoke School.

For some Buddhists, the truth that the ordinations started on the summer time solstice is an auspicious signal, as are, based on the Fb announcement, the looks in Bhutan of “rainbows encircling the solar.”