Women’s Ordination

Abstract The discussion about Buddhist women’s ordination in recent decades has focused primarily on its legality and technical procedures by drawing from the stipulations in the Vinaya to assess the validity of restoring the bhikkhunī order in the Theravada and Tibetan traditions. While Buddhist scholars pay more attention to the legal process of ordination in conferring a legitimate status to the female candidate, the monastic practitioners focus on the ritual efficacy of ordination that validates their status change. In an attempt to explore doctrinal as well as socio-anthropological approaches to women’s ordination, this chapter discusses various forms of ordination that grant monastic status to Buddhist nuns, and pays special attention to their real-life experiences both prior to and during ordination that have profound implications on their religious life.