Daughters of the Buddha

Daugthers of the Buddha

A newborn from afar. The birth of Sakyadhita Italy.

Two testimonies

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by Sakyadhita Italy

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I’ve been following the work of Sakyadhita International^[1] (Sakyadhita – Daughters of the Buddha) with the utmost gratitude for many years. This association of Buddhist women is committed to awake women to realize their female potential through Dharma, fostering gender equality in Buddhist communities worldwide, tackling the social ills of poverty, malnutrition, sexual abuse and trafficking, and working in the fields of education, health, spiritual practice and the full ordination of women (plus supporting the access of nuns to the higher level of geshema restored in recent years).^[2]

On two occasions I experienced first-hand the extraordinary driving force of Sakyadhita International by attending two International Conferences (Hong Kong in 2017 and Seoul in 2023). 3000 followers attended the Seoul conference, including nuns and lay people from more than thirty countries around the world. A fruitful experience of human and spiritual growth! In Seoul a small group of Italian women (two Tibetan nuns and two lay people, myself included) told Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo and Ven. Tenzin Palmo of our decision to establish Sakyadhita Italy ^[3]to benefit women and all beings on the Path of the Blessed One.

As a scholar of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and a Buddhist female practitioner, I personally feel that it’s now truly beneficial for Italian Buddhism to recognize duality of gender as an unavoidable way of seeing ourselves and the world (as today it is well known how male and female genders are always interpreted culturally). In other words the acknowledgement of those deeply-rooted cultural gender stereotypes (models that are now considered as historic and therefore not unmovable), such as the still widespread and influential one that women are supposed to be ethically inferior, as well as the one that regard religious dimension as a privileged male territory for the male subject and the male voice only.

It would therefore seem legitimate for us all, both men and women who have faith in the message of Śākyamuni Buddha, to assume the historic perspective of studying and examining Buddhist tradition and to consider not only the partiality of religious history documented up to now (which has often failed to recollect memory of the experience and genealogy of women for transmit and preserve the religious tradition), but also the partiality of the male religious experience itself, which in many respects is auto-referential (and deprived of contributions from devout women).

This is why in recent decades female Buddhist scholars and/or practitioners (as well as eminent Buddhist Masters, male and female) has taken the task of studying both the original sources of reference (in order to check the historic reliability of tradition and to identify the reference points of cultural androcentrism in which it has operated up to now), and seeking influential female spiritual models capable of fertilizing and broadening the symbolic imaginary of men and women on the Path.

Added to this is the awareness that we as women could not only be included into male accounts of a spiritual and religious experience (which aims at perpetuating the supposed impartiality of men and masculine models considered as neutral in their maleness i.e. inclusive of female gender). As women we need to awaken to value and dignity – to the complete existence – of the female Sangha, both lay and monastic, in its gender-specificity. In contemporary societies gender equality and gender conciliation have therefore to become crucial (and legitimate!) issues for spreading Śākyamuni’s message and its values throughout the world, and for the reputation itself of Buddhism as an unbiased, egalitarian religion (Janet Gyatso). Because the question of gender balance and gender conciliation in the Buddhist religion (as in any other setting) isn’t just about social justice, it’s about common sense, as we are reminded by Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, one of the founders of Sakyadhita International (Bodhgaya, 1987). ^[4]

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Carla Gianotti, co-founder of Sakyadhita Italy

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Thanks to a wonderful invitation I’m here at the 18th Sakyadhita International Conference, in the massive Coex centre in the heart of Seoul, in a glass building that stands out among the tower blocks. My gaze falls upon the pagodas of the Bongeusa Temple right in front of me, built in 1500. New and old combine empathetically in an energy continuum that makes the Buddha’s message present and current, thanks to the attendance of nuns and monks who belong to all Buddhist traditions. It is the female Sangha in particular however, the nuns, with their clothes in different colours characterising the various traditions, who stand out with their shaved heads filling the space. There’s almost no end to them from high up in the amphitheatre-styled conference room. Profound emotion rises within me, with a sense of belonging that I’ve never felt before, of continuity with the wonderful, ancient history of the Awakened One, which saw the start of the male and female Sangha in India 2500 years ago. It’s precisely this female Sangha, and especially the first fully ordained woman, Mahapajapati, the Buddha’s aunt who raised him, who arouses a deep feeling of devotion and immense gratitude within me.

Despite this, according to the tradition that has been passed down to us though, the female Sangha has suffered a condition of inferiority compared to the male Sangha. Indeed it is reported that Bhikshuni Mahapajapati had to observe eight additional rules along with the vows taken as a nun, which are known as the Eight Garudhammas (eight rules that established the submission of the female monastic Sangha to the male one and that continue to be applied until now).

This subject had been a priority for discussion at the Conference. Even though it was historically documented that these eight rules were drawn up in a timeframe subsequent to that of the Buddha Sakyamuni, they continue to be applied and therefore are hugely responsible for nuns being perceived as inferior to monks.

Another key topic at the Conference had regarded nuns being fully ordained as Bhikkhunis. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, one of the Venerable Bhikkhunis and Chair of Sakyadhita International several times, states that “The idea of a fourfold Sangha came to Buddha at the start of his teaching. It’s impossible then that he was opposed to the female monasticism that was part of the fourfold Sangha. He described the fourfold Sangha as a very stable table with four legs. Everyone who’s against the highest ordination of nuns has a table with three and a half legs only, which is very wobbly indeed.”

The good news, bringing enthusiastic strength and confidence, is the start of re-establishing the female lineage of Bhikkhunis, the full ordination of nuns (which stopped in some female monastic traditions, such as the Tibetan tradition, or never started in others). In Bhutan, Je Khenpo has decided to proceed with the ordination of Bhikkhunis on request of the royal family and the Queen Mother, thereby restoring the Mahayana Mulasarvastivada tradition i.e. the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, with a special ceremony officiated solely by the male Sangha. This is an event of major historic and spiritual significance, and an important step forward in gender equality between monks and nuns, enabling the latter to achieve maximum representation in the Buddhist tradition and to manifest their compassionate attitude with an authoritative role so to benefit all sentient beings.

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Sister Carla Tsultrim Freccero, co-founder of Sakyadhita Italy

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1. www.sakyadhita.org. ↑

2. The term geshe (literally ‘brother or virtuous friend’) refers to a high-level academic degree for monks. It has had a feminine suffix since 2011, when the title geshema (feminine of geshe) was used for the first time in the history of Tibetan Buddhism in Dharamsala in India (home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile) to refer to Ven. Kelsang Wangmo, a nun of German origin. Since 2016 the title has been fully accessible to nuns. ↑

3. sakyadhitaitaly.org ↑

4. KARMA LEKSHE TSOMO <<Gender Equity and Human Rights >> in Dignity and Discipline. Reviving Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns, Wisdom Publications, Boston 2010, pp. 281-289 on p. 289. ↑