Women in Buddhism

Women in Buddhism
Sukanta Roy, 1977 Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering

Of late, I have found myself thinking a lot about the manifestation of gender inequality in religion, specially in Buddhism. That’s not saying much as I think about gender inequality most of the time, but it seems especially troubling in the context of religion, which has the power to make inequality appear fundamentally “right”. A lot of different opinions and viewpoints exist today on this subject and despite the religion’s global appeal, the role of women in Buddhism has been a subject of public debate.

Women in Buddhism is a topic that can be approached from varied perspectives including those of theology, history, anthropology, and feminism. Khando Rinpoche, a female lama in Tibetan Buddhism, downplays the significance of growing attention to the topic. She says “When there is a talk about women and Buddhism, I have noticed that people often regard the topic because we live in modern times and so many women are practicing the Dharma now. However, this is not the case. The female sangha has been here for centuries. We aren’t bringing something new into a 2,500-year-old tradition. The roots are there, and we are simply re-energising them.” While I tend to agree with her broad statement, as I dig deeper, differences come into the foreground.

Gautama Buddha permitted women to join his monastic community (Sangha) and fully participate in it, although there were certain provisions of ‘Garudhammas’. In contrast to their male counterparts (bhikkshus), bhikkshunis are subjected to stricter spiritual guidelines, which pose challenges in their monastic life. Eight Garudhmmas, are additional spiritual guidelines directly imposed on bhikkshunis, not bhikkshus. These rules require women to respect monks, undergo additional discipline training, and not worship in a space devoid of their male counterparts. Furthermore, some Buddhist scholars interpreted that it is impossible for a woman to become a Buddha. Consequently, the imposition of additional rules and the impossibility of female Buddhahood has subordinated the bhikkshunis order to that of the bhikkshus.

Though a misogynist strain is found in early Indian Buddhism, the presence of some misogynist doctrines doesn’t mean the whole of ancient Indian Buddhism was a misogynist. There are statements in Buddhist scriptures that appear to be misogynistic, however, in societies where men have always been the authorities and the ones given wider choices, a negative view of women might be seen as simply reflecting the empirical social and political reality. Furthermore, the religious literatures are more likely to be addressed to men. Hence we find the Buddhist emphasis on renunciation of sensual desires expressed in terms of males’ attachment to women more frequently, than we find the reverse. The mix of a positive attitude to femininity with blatantly negative sentiments has led many writers to characterise early Buddhism’s attitude to women as deeply ambivalent.

This brings us to a pertinent question – what did Buddha think about gender inequality? In establishing an order of bhikkshunis in the first place, Buddha was a revolutionary. Up until then, most women in India were entirely dependent on the male members of their families and couldn’t make any decisions without their authorisation. By allowing women to ‘go forth’ either as a novice or a fully-professed bhkkshuni when they reach the age of twenty, Buddha was establishing something unprecedented: women living in communities (sanghas) dedicated to spiritual teachings (Dhamma) and discipline (Vinaya) that he had laid down. Women who lived independently from their families as homeless alms mendicants, relying only on the offerings, were extremely rare at that time – an established order unheard of.

The ancient chronicle tells us that one day Mahapajapati, Buddha’s aunt and foster mother, visited him, together with five hundred princesses with the request that they be allowed to join the Sangha (which was then only for Bhikkhus). Buddha’s cousin Ananda, asked him if women could go forth as nuns and live under the Vinaya, the same way as the monks. Buddha was initially reluctant. Ananda then asked if women, with a suitable opportunity, could attain full enlightenment. Buddha replied positively: women are equally capable of reaching the highest level of spiritual enlightenment as men. From this, the bhikkshuni order began. Eventually, Buddha allowed Mahapajapati to become the first bhikkshuni and therefore, the head of the order of bhikkshunis. However, this was contingent on her accepting a set of eight important rules (Garudhammas) – amongst which were protocols that placed the bhikkshunis in a dependent and subordinate relationship to the bhikkshus. This was in line with the standards of Indian society at that time. Owing to the conservative nature of monastic tradition, and its avowal to maintain the standards that Buddha used, this status quo largely persists to the present day in Theravada Buddhism.

Bhikkshuni Sanghamitra, daughter of emperor Ashoka, arrived in Sri Lanka on a historic mission. Sanghamitra brought with her two treasures. First of these was the establishment of bhikkshuni order (sangha) in Sri Lanka, thus complementing the work of her brother Mahinda Thera who not only established bhikkshu order (sangha) in Sri Lanka but is also credited with the introduction of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The second of the treasures brought by Sanghamitra was a sapling of the Bodhi Tree, under which Buddha had attained enlightenment. It is ironic that whereas Bhikkshuni Order, which because of its self-sustaining nature could have continued indefinitely, has disappeared in Sri Lanka, the Bodhi Tree, a much more transient entity, still flourishes in Sri Lanka.

Buddha’s decision to sanction the Bhikkshuni Order (sangha) or the Order for women in the fifth year after his enlightenment was a landmark in Buddhist and Indian history. That order was marred by the special rules which Buddha imposed on Bhikkshunis (Garudhamma) and these rules were later incorporated for Bhikkshunis in Vinaya. Ironically, these rules were considered to be the genesis of gender discrimination in Buddhism, though in a very moderate way, much lesser than what was prescribed and practiced in other religions. One of the eight rules say that any individual Bhikkshuni had always to pay respect to any Bhikkshu, however junior the later may have been. On the contrary, the usual Buddhist rule which guided seniority and was applicable to Bhikkshus only, was the number of years a male has spent in the order. It’s this rule from which MahaPrajapati (Buddha’s foster mother) sought exemption with the help of Ananda but Buddha refused. Whatever be the explanation, the rule lack reciprocity between males and females, we shall never know whether these rules, at a later date contributed to the extinction of Bhikkshuni Order (sangha). On his deathbed, Buddha gave permission to revise the less important rules of the Vinaya, which was never undertaken.

While the Mahayana Bhikkshuni Order (sangha) still survived for some more time, the fate of Bhikkshuni Order in Theravada countries has been different. In India itself, due to repeated invasions by people of different religions, not only the Bhikkshuni Order but the Bhikkshu order also came to an end. But before this happened, both orders were established in Sri Lanka, which henceforth became the source of Theravada Buddhism. There’s no evidence that a Theravada Bhikkshuni Order existed in any country other than India and Sri Lanka. Whereas the Bhikkshu Order was exported to countries in South-East Asia, this does not seem to have been the case with Bhikkshuni Order.

At this juncture, few comments of the Buddhist positions of women with that of other religions may be examined. We know the position of women under classical Hinduism, which allows worshiping of Hindu deities, some of whom are Goddesses. However, in Hinduism women cannot still officiate as the priests in Hindu temples. The inequality persists even at modern age.

Christianity has traditionally been a masculine religion mainly because it’s main dogma relates to a God considered as a male (Father) and a prophet-teacher Jesus, who is considered as his “son”. The centrepiece of the religion is the Father – Son relationship, and it is not surprising that the women have been relegated to a secondary place and denied spiritual equality with men.

The position of women in Islam is well known. They too are denied full access in religious functions, and in many countries, even access to mosques. It is disturbing that the revival of Islamic fundamentalism is threatening to make positions of women even worse.

Thus, whatever comparison we make with other religions, Buddha’s views on this question is not only enlightening but unique.