Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka

by Tessa J. Bartholomeusz

• ISBN13: 9780521071680
• ISBN10: 0521071682
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Women under the Bo Tree examines the tradition of female world-renunciation in Buddhist Sri Lanka. The study is textual, historical and anthropological, and links ancient tradition with contemporary practice. Tessa Bartholomeusz utilizes data based on her field experiences in many contemporary cloisters of Sri Lanka, and on original archival research. She explores the history of the re-emergence of Buddhist female renouncers in the late nineteenth century after a hiatus of several hundred years; the reasons why women renounce; the variety of expressions of female world-renunciation; and, above all, attitudes about women and monasticism that have either prohibited women from renouncing or have encouraged them to do so. One of the most striking discoveries of the study is that the fortunes of Buddhist female renouncers is tied to the fortunes of Buddhism in Sri Lanka more generally, and to perceived notions of Sri Lanka as the caretaker of Buddhism.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Notes on pronunciation

Dramatis personae

Introduction: The tradition of Buddhist female renunciation in Sri Lanka

The ancient order of nuns in Sri Lanka

Nineteenth century Ceylon: the emergence of the lay nun

Theosophists, educators and nuns

The Sanghamitta Sisterhood

The Institutionalisation of tradition

The lay nun in transitional Ceylon

The Dasa Sil Mata in contemporary Sri Lanka

Novitiates, western lay nuns, and cave dwellers

The Sri Lankan Bhikkhuni Sangha: trends and reflections

Epilogue: Women under the bo tree

Appendices

Notes

Bibliographies

Index

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