Susanne Mrozik
Associate Professor of Religion
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA
The Theravada bhikkhuni order was established by Bhikkhuni Sanghamitta in the third century BC. Together with the bhikkhu order, the bhikkhuni order flourished until the late 10th or early 11th century when a period of warfare rendered both orders defunct. Although the bhikkhu order was revived several times thereafter with the help of bhikkhus from Burma and Thailand, the bhikkhuni order unfortunately was not revived.
By the time progressive Sri Lankan Buddhists began to advocate a Theravada bhikkhuni revival in the late 19th century, there were no more Theravada bhikkhunis anywhere in the world to perform an upasampada, although there were plenty of Mahayana bhikkhunis qualified to do so. For roughly ten centuries, the Buddha’s fourfold Sangha, consisting of bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, upasakas and upasikas, was reduced to a threefold Sangha in Sri Lanka. Fortunately, progressive Sri Lankan bhikkhus joined South Korean and Taiwanese bhikkhus and bhikkhunis to hold two international bhikkhuni ordination ceremonies in India in 1996 and 1998. More than thirty Sri Lankan women were ordained as bhikkhunis in the course of these two ordination ceremonies. Since 1998 bhikkhuni upasampadas occur regularly in Sri Lanka.
Since 1998 the bhikkhuni order has been developing nicely in Sri Lanka with the support of many influential monks such as (in alphabetical order by dharma name) Ven. Bodagama Chandima, Ven. Talalle Dhammaloka, Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda, Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, Ven. Batagama Medhananda, Ven. Kamburupitiye Nandaratana, Ven. Waragoda Premaratana, Ven. Mahagalkadawala Punnasara, Ven. Kahavita Siriniwasa, Ven. Porowagama Somalankara, Ven. Inamaluwe Sumangala, Ven. Kamburugamuwe Vajira, Ven. Madagoda Vajiragnana, Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara, Ven. K. Wimalajoti, among so many others. Equally important has been the enthusiastic support of countless lay men and women.
Today there are approximately 1,000 Theravada bhikkhunis in Sri Lanka. Additionally, we must not forget that there are also a few thousand dasasil nuns. The dasasil order of nuns was established in Sri Lanka in 1905 at a time when there was still insufficient support to revive the bhikkhuni order. It is a tribute to the tremendous courage and dedication of Theravada Buddhist women everywhere that, in the absence of a bhikkhuni order, they have developed alternative orders of nuns, often under extremely adverse circumstances. Today both Sri Lankan bhikkhunis and dasasil nuns make important contributions to Buddhism and society, as a whole. Many dasasil nuns have become ordained as bhikkhunis since 1998, but many others still choose to remain dasasil nuns for a variety of reasons, including loyalty to their order and respect for their elderly teacher nuns who are too old or infirm to become bhikkhunis themselves. Some dasasil nuns feel that it would be disrespectful to their teacher nuns to ordain as bhikkhunis when their teacher nuns cannot do so.
Private support
Although bhikkhunis receive private support from monks and laity, including some government officials, they still do not receive any public government support. Hopefully, they will in the future, but in the meantime bhikkhunis face extreme hardship. The gravest hardship is the lack of financial support for the education of samaneris and bhikkhunis. There is still not a single government-supported pirivena for samaneris and bhikkhunis anywhere in the country. Unlike bhikkhus, bhikkhunis must find the money to pay for their own education. Even when teachers volunteer to teach bhikkhunis free of charge, the bhikkhunis must still pay for their teachers’ transportation. Most temples are quite poor and even the cost of their teachers’ transportation is a hardship. It would be helpful if the subscribers of bhikkhuni temples could keep this in mind when making donations to their temples. For example, subscribers usually offer items such as brooms, buckets, washing powder, etc. at kathina pujas. Temples may receive four or more brooms in one night! Bhikkhuni temples really do not need that many brooms! It might be better to offer the amount of money a broom costs. That way the bhikkhunis can use this money to help pay for their educations.
Bhikkhunis and their sister dasasil nuns, make many valuable contributions to Buddhism and society, as a whole. Subscribers commonly describe bhikkhunis as ‘silvat’ and ‘karunavanta’. Female subscribers, in particular, frequently seek the advice of bhikkhunis when problems arise in their families. As women, they are much more comfortable discussing these problems with bhikkhunis than with bhikkhus. Since women in Sri Lanka still have the primary responsibility for the well-being of their families, without bhikkhunis these women might not be able to get the counselling they need to help their families.
In addition to offering counselling services, bhikkhunis also after many other kinds of social services, including a variety of children’s educational programs, healthcare educational programs and outreach to the poor and sick. Furthermore today’s bhikkhunis perform all of the same religious duties as bhikkhus. For example, they are regularly invited for alms-giving and pirith chanting; they offer monthly sil programs; they hold yearly kathina pujas; they routinely receive invitations to deliver sermons and teach meditation (sometimes even at bhikkhu temples). It should be noted that female subscribers are especially eager to participate in the mediation programs bhikkhunis offer in their temples. Often they travel outside their own villages to bhikkhuni temples for these meditation programs because such programs are not offered in their village temples.
Happiness
Bhikkhunis are regarded by many as outstanding moral exemplars in today’s world. Indeed the first adjective that subscribers use to describe bhikkhunis is ‘silvat’. Today we need bhikkhunis more than ever. We live in a world where happiness is often defined in terms of what we are able to buy and consume to such an extent that we threaten the very survival of our planet. Bhikkhunis can model for us a saner way of living, based on moderation rather than excess. For example, bhikkhunis do not request meat for their alms-giving. They are not driven around in air-conditioned cars, nor do they own cars, themselves. Bhikkhunis teach us that it is possible to be happy with less material comfort and goods than most of us routinely crave.
As moral exemplars, bhikkhunis and their sister dasasil nuns benefit both men and women. Nevertheless they are especially important role models for women and girls. For instance, in today’s world girls are increasingly sexualized at ever younger ages. Half of all six-to nine-year old girls in the USA now wear lipstick or lipgloss on a regular basis. Child development experts have expressed concern that this premature sexualization of girls makes them more vulnerable to eating disorders and poor sexual choices. What might the benefit be to these young girls-and
young boys, for that matter - of female role models, who by virtue of being nuns represent a non-sexualized woman? Similarly, what might be the benefit to adult women to have such female role models in their lives, countering perhaps the insistence in the media that women should present themselves in the most sexually-alluring manner possible, and that they should lament the onset of visible signs of aging?
To be continued with part 02
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