Women under the Bo Tree
Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka

A lively examination of female world-renunciation on Buddhist Sri Lanka.

Tessa J. Bartholomeusz (Author)

9780521071680, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 August 2008

308 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

"Women under the Bo Tree is a fascinating account of the life of an unusual institution, the history of which sheds a great deal of light on the position of women in contemporary Theravada Buddhist cultures. By perusing the historical record and recovering the voices of nineteenth and twentieth-century lay nuns, their supporters, and their critics, and also by interviewing contemporary lay nuns, Bartholomeusz provides us with an insightful account of this self-declared monastic community." Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on pronunciation
Dramatis personae
Part I
Introduction: The tradition of Buddhist female renunciation in Sri Lanka
1. The ancient order of nuns in Sri Lanka
2. Nineteenth century Ceylon: the emergence of the lay nun
3. Theosophists, educators and nuns
4. The Sanghamitta Sisterhood
Part II
5. The Institutionalisation of tradition
6. The lay nun in transitional Ceylon
7. The Dasa Sil Mata in contemporary Sri Lanka
8. Novitiates, western lay nuns, and cave dwellers
9. The Sri Lankan Bhikkhuni Sangha: trends and reflections
Epilogue: Women under the bo tree
Appendices
Notes
Bibliographies
Index.

Subject Areas: Buddhism [HRE]