DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE: The Evolving Role Of Women In Buddhism

Many of the issues surrounding 'bhiksuni' (nun) ordination in Tibetan Buddhism are shared by other parts of the Buddhist world. While some regard the bhiksuni ordination movement to be largely driven by Western Buddhist converts, efforts to revive the female order have actually been initiated by various progressive Asian monks and nuns over the last century. New 'bhiksuni' groups at various sites, including Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, are now at varying stages of maturity. All of these groups are participating in an ineluctable movement across Buddhism, one that is ultimately to be connected to larger shifts in our contemporary global civil society. This is a collection of essays taken from a global conference on 'bhiksuni' ordination from all traditions that took place in Hamburg, Germany. The essays in this book cover the breadth of Buddhist traditions and convey the history and the vision for the future of the role of women as ambassadors and curators of the ordained Buddhist community. This book shows a shift toward granting women full ordination in all traditions of Buddhism.