Karma Lekshe Tsomo - Eminent Buddhist Women

Edited by

Karma Lekshe Tsomo

Cover art by Margaret Anne Smith

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2014 State University of New York

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Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eminent Buddhist women / Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4384-5131-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4384-5130-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Buddhist womenBiography. 2. Buddhist nunsBiography. 3. Women in Buddhism. I. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, 1944

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Karma Lekshe Tsomo

Chapter 1
My Sisters Future Buddhahood: A Jtaka of the Buddhas Lifetime as a Woman

Karen Derris

Chapter 2
Two Generations of Eminent Nepalese Nuns

Punyawati Guruma

Chapter 3
Brave Daughters of the Buddha: The Feminisms of the Burmese Buddhist Nuns

Cristina Bonnet-Acosta

Chapter 4
Pioneering Bhikkhun s in Contemporary Sri Lanka and Thailand

Tomomi Ito

Chapter 5
Bhikkhun Ta Tao: Paving the Way for Future Generations

Bhikkhun Dhammananda (Chatsumarn Kabilsingh)

Chapter 6
Eminent Nuns in Hue, Vietnam

Elise Anne DeVido

Chapter 7
Bhiku Nh Thanh: A Polar Star among Vietnamese Nuns

Thch N Nh Nguyt

Chapter 8
Bhiku Tr Hai: A Scented Lotus Life

Thch N Huong Nh

Chapter 9
Bhiku Hiuwan: Enlightening Society by Institutionalizing Buddhist Education

Yu-chen Li

Chapter 10
Pongnygwan: The Eminent Bhiku of Cheju Island

Hyangsoon Yi

Chapter 11
A Resolute Vision of the Future: Hyechun Sunims Founding of the National Bhiku Association in Korea

Eun-su Cho

Chapter 12
From Mountains to Metropolis: Sn Master Daehaengs Teachings on Contemporary Buddhist Practice

Hyeseon Sunim ( Kyunhee Lee )

Chapter 13
The Importance of Jetsun Mingyur Paldron in the Development of Sikkimese Buddhism

Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia

Chapter 14
The Legacy of a Female Sikkimese Buddhist Teacher: The Lineage of Pelling Ani Wangdzin and Gendered Religious Experience in Modern Sikkim

Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa

Chapter 15
Kunzang Drolkar: A Delog in Eastern Tibet

Alyson Prude

Chapter 16
Courage as Eminence: Tibetan Nuns at Yarchen Monastery in Kham

Padmatsho

Chapter 17
Nuns, kin s, and Ordinary Women in the Revival of Mongolian Buddhism

Karma Lekshe Tsomo

Chapter 18
Mummy-la: The Life and Accomplishments of Freda Bedi

Tenzin Palmo

Chapter 19
Bhiku Ruimiao: An Embodiment of Transcultural Values

Malia Dominica Wong

Chapter 20
What Is a Relevant Role Model? The Example of an Ordinary Woman Who Achieved Enlightenment

Rita M. Gross

This book has been a labor of love, not only for me but also for the many dear friends and colleagues who have taken part in this wonderful project. Many have been involved from start to finish. First, I would like to express my appreciation for the selfless dedication of the team who created, sustained, translated, and documented the Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Ho Chi Minh City in 2010, especially to Christie Yuling Chang, Yu-chen Li, Thch N Vien Ngan, Thch N Nh Nguyt, Bhikkhun Lieu Phap, Emily Mariko Sanders, Malia Dominica Wong, the Vietnam Bhiku Sagha, and to all those who support the global Buddhist womens movement. Mere words are insufficient.

This heartfelt effort to document the lives of exceptional Buddhist women has come to fruition because of the kindness of an outstanding team of conscientious and astute editors. Boundless thanks go to Margaret Coberly, Rebecca Paxton, Bhikkhun Adhimutti, Alison Hoffman, and Pamela Kirby for their diligence, expertise, compassion, and amazing turnaround time. Sincere appreciation also goes to Evelyn Diane Cowie, Anne Girard, Carol Stevens Gerstl, Constance Ellwood, Joy Fox, Karen Jensen, Kathleen Monaco, Mara Canizzaro, and many others who have helped along the way. Mahalo nui loa for your enthusiasm, encouragement, and friendship.

Immense gratitude also goes to the authors who so generously contributed their knowledge and insights. An international collaborative effort involving so many different languages and perspectives involves many riskslinguistically, philosophically, and politically. The contributors are to be commended for being courageous enough to venture those risks and for their patient cooperation throughout years of revision. In an attempt to preserve their original voices, I have retained their own use of either Pali or Sanskrit (for example, bhikkhun or bhiku ), with diacritics or without, and apologize for all errors in transcription.

It is a great joy to bring to light the stories of these extraordinary Buddhist women. Among others, I am delighted to preserve in these pages the lives of several of my own teachers, the bhiksuns Khechog Palmo, Hyechun Sunim, and Shig Hiuwan. The book is dedicated to them and to all the wonderful, often unheralded women who have kept alight the lamp of Dharma over many centuries. May their stories encourage other women on the path to awakening. May they also inspire the continual discovery of other stories and achievements of eminent practitioners whose voices have not yet been heard.

All merits derived from these efforts accrue to this spectacular team, while all flaws are entirely my own. May the merits be shared with countless beings throughout time and space. And may all sufferings derived from gender discrimination and other insidious forms of oppression be banished forever!

Karma Lekshe Tsomo

For centuries, women have been relegated to live, practice, and teach in the shadows of far more visibly-placed men. History is dominated by the deeds, thoughts, and influences of men considered to be eminent, with the value of human achievement determined exclusively by the standards of men, the unfortunate method of assessment until recent times. But eminence can be interpreted in many different waysto define it as merely having visibility, power, and authority is to misunderstand the word. When the word is applied to the majority of women in Buddhist cultures, the definition expands to influential, important, notable, and superior. As in other spheres of life, women perform vital functions in religion throughout Buddhist communities in Asia and abroad.

For too long, the measure of what was true and valuable in the human experience ignored a crucial componentmillions of women who have loved, worked, fought, compromised, suffered, and succeeded in realizing their own highest potential, but who remain unknown to us simply because their stories were never deemed worthy of recording. When eminence is predicated on a larger set of qualities than those typically recognized as marks of achievement; when eminence recognizes inner qualities such as sincerity, warm-heartedness, kindness to children, care for the weak and disenfranchised, wisdom, tenderness, patience, and compassion, then the term eminence includes a host of individuals who existed and flourished throughout history but were overlooked, ignored, undervalued, or invisible simply because they were women.