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?
පසෙලාස්වක
අව
අටවක
අමාවක
පුර
අටවක