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Women in Buddhism

The history of women in Buddhism — from the Buddha's founding of the bhikkhuni order to the modern revival. The texts, the institutions, the debates, the contemporary teachers.

by The editorial team · reviewed 2026-06-13

The question of women’s place in Buddhism is one of the most contested in the contemporary tradition. The historical record, the textual record, and the institutional reality are all more complicated than any single narrative suggests. The Buddha, on the founding accounts, accepted women into the monastic order and gave them a place in the Sangha. The actual history is patchier: the bhikkhuni order survived in some places, died out in others, and has been partially revived in the modern period. The contemporary debate — over ordination, over teacher authority, over the role of women in the laity — is ongoing in every Buddhist tradition.

The founding texts #

The Buddha’s relationship with women is recorded in several places in the Pali Canon. The most extensive is the story of Mahapajapati Gotami (Pali; Sanskrit Mahaprajapati Gautami), the Buddha’s stepmother and aunt, who was among the first women to be ordained. The story is told in the Cullavagga (the section of the Vinaya Pitaka on monastic discipline): Mahapajapati approached the Buddha three times, asking for ordination; the Buddha refused three times; Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin, eventually persuaded him to accept; the Buddha agreed, with conditions. The conditions — the Garbhavashesha or “Eight Garudhammas” (Eight Special Rules) — are a set of additional precepts that the bhikkhunis must observe but the bhikkhus do not, in particular: a bhikkhuni must respect a bhikkhu even if he is junior in ordination, must spend the vassa (rains retreat) at a monastery where there is a bhikkhu Sangha, must undergo ordination by both a bhikkhuni and a bhikkhu Sangha, and must not criticize or admonish a bhikkhu.

The text has been the centre of a long debate. The traditional Mahayana and Theravada reading has been that the Garudhammas reflect a specific historical compromise — that the Buddha was reluctant but ultimately agreed, and that the additional rules reflect the social conditions of the time. The more critical reading, associated with scholars like Diana Paul and Karma Lekshe Tsomo, is that the Garudhammas were an early attempt to subordinate the bhikkhuni order to the bhikkhu order, and that they have functioned historically to limit women’s access to ordination and to teaching roles.

A second important text is the Therigatha and Theragatha — the verses of the elder nuns and monks, the oldest extant poetry in the Pali Canon. The Therigatha (the verses of the female elders) includes over 500 verses attributed to about 100 women; it is the earliest known text composed by women in any culture. The poems cover the full range of experience: from Patacara, who lost her husband, her children, and her parents, and went mad with grief before being ordained; to Sona, who came from a wealthy merchant family and gave it all up; to Uppalavanna, who was praised by the Buddha for her insight. The Therigatha has been a particular focus of the contemporary women’s movement in Buddhism, as a text of women’s spiritual and literary achievement.

The historical trajectory #

The history of the bhikkhuni order in the centuries after the Buddha is patchy but reconstructible in broad outlines.

The early centuries. The bhikkhuni order was established in India during the Buddha’s lifetime and continued for several centuries. The Buddha’s own foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, is the first bhikkhuni; the order grew rapidly in the first centuries BCE. The most famous early bhikkhuni is Dharmadatta, a woman whose ordination of other women in Sri Lanka is mentioned in the early chronicles. The order was supported by the major Buddhist kings of the early period.

The decline in India. By the end of the first millennium CE, the bhikkhuni order was in serious decline in India. The reasons are contested: the Muslim invasions, the gradual decline of Buddhist institutional support, the rise of the brahmacharya (Hindu monastic) tradition, and possibly a change in the social conditions that supported the order. The Mahabodhivamsa and other Sri Lankan chronicles report that the last Indian bhikkhuni ordained in the unbroken line was the bhikkhuni Sanghamitta, who took full ordination in Sri Lanka in the 5th century CE and brought the lineage back to India.

The East Asian lineage. The bhikkhuni order was established in China in the 4th-5th centuries CE through the Dharmaguptaka lineage (the school whose Vinaya is the basis of East Asian Buddhism). The most famous early Chinese bhikkhuni is Zhi Mian (d. 516), whose ordination of more than 300 women is recorded in the Chinese sources. The Chinese bhikkhuni order survived in fits and starts through the imperial period; the modern revival began in the late 19th century with the establishment of Buddhist nunneries in China, Korea, and Japan. The East Asian lineage was the only continuous bhikkhuni lineage in the world from the 5th century until the modern Theravada revival.

The Theravada decline. In the Theravada countries (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos), the bhikkhuni order died out somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries, for reasons that are not entirely clear. The most likely reasons include the loss of royal support, the absence of a bhikkhuni Sangha to perform the full ordination of new bhikkhunis (the damma-sammana ordination requires both bhikkhuni and bhikkhu Sanghas), and a gradual devaluation of women’s religious roles in the Theravada world.

The modern Theravada revival. The first modern Theravada bhikkhuni ordinations took place in Sri Lanka in 1996 and 1998, when a group of women were ordained by the dual Sangha method, with bhikkhunis from the East Asian tradition assisting. The ordinations were controversial; some senior monks argued that the lineage had been broken and that a fully valid Theravada bhikkhuni ordination was not possible. The argument was rejected by the ordaining Sangha and by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court in 2004. Subsequent ordinations have taken place in Thailand, Myanmar, and elsewhere, with the Dhammakaya tradition in Thailand being particularly open to the bhikkhuni order.

The most important figures in the modern revival include:

  • Ayya Tathaaloka (b. 1955), an American woman ordained in the Theravada tradition in 1988 in Sri Lanka, who leads the Dhammadharini Vihara in California, a bhikkhuni monastery.
  • Bhikkhuni Dhammananda (b. 1943 as Chatsumarn Kabilsingh), a Thai academic who was the first woman to receive full Theravada bhikkhuni ordination in Thailand, in 2003. Her ordination was performed by the Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles. The ordination was opposed by the Thai Sangha establishment; she has been an important voice in the contemporary bhikkhuni movement.
  • Bhikkhuni Kusuma (b. 1946 as Hema Goonesekere), a Sri Lankan nun ordained in 1998.
  • The bhikkhunis of Sakyadhita — the international network of Buddhist women founded in 1987 by Ayya Khema (1923–1997), a German-born bhikkhuni, and others, including Chatsumarn Kabilsingh (now Bhikkhuni Dhammananda) and Elizabeth Cook (now Sister Khanti Kirti). Sakyadhita has been the major international network for the bhikkhuni movement.

The contemporary debate #

The contemporary debate over the bhikkhuni order in the Theravada world is one of the most important institutional issues in modern Buddhism. The principal positions:

The pro-revival position — held by the Sakyadhita network, by the ordaining bhikkhunis, by the International Theravada Bhikkhuni Association, and by a growing number of lay Buddhists — argues that the ordination is valid, that the lineage was preserved in the East Asian tradition, and that the absence of the bhikkhuni order in the Theravada world is a historical accident that should be corrected. The most thorough scholarly defense of this position is by Hin-Tsang Bhikshuni Wu Yin and Hsing Yun (the founder of Fo Guang Shan), and by Karma Lekshe Tsomo in her edited volume Buddhism Through American Women’s Eyes (2006).

The conservative position — held by the Thai Sangha establishment, by sections of the Sri Lankan Sangha, and by some Western convert teachers — argues that the bhikkhuni lineage in the Theravada was broken and that the modern ordinations are therefore not valid, that the conditions for the ordination are not present in the Theravada world, and that the proper course is to support the mae chi (Thai, “lay nun”) tradition or the thilashin (Burmese) tradition, which is a non-ordained but recognised form of religious life for women. The position is defended by the Thai Sangha Council and by such Western teachers as Ajahn Brahm, the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia, who has argued that the bhikkhuni ordination is not historically valid in the Theravada tradition.

The debate is institutional, political, and theological. It is also generational: the younger Theravada monks, including those trained in the West, are more open to the revival than the older establishment. The 2014 Bodhinyana controversy, in which Ajahn Brahm was censured by the Australian Sangha for refusing to disavow the bhikkhuni ordinations, was a public version of the generational shift. The 2023 ordinations in Bodh Gaya, with bhikkhunis from the East Asian and Theravada traditions participating, are a sign that the revival is continuing despite the resistance.

Women as teachers #

The question of women’s authority to teach is related to the ordination question but is distinct. In the Vinaya, a bhikkhuni may teach a bhikkhuni, a bhikkhuni may teach a laywoman, and a bhikkhuni may not give a formal teaching to a bhikkhu Sangha. (A bhikkhu may teach any audience, including bhikkhunis.) The practice has been that bhikkhunis teach other bhikkhunis and laywomen, and bhikkhus teach the broader Sangha and the lay community, including laywomen. The recent history is more complex.

In the Theravada world, the major women teachers of the 20th century include Sayadaw U Silananda (1929–2011, Burmese), who ordained no bhikkhunis but supported the revival; Pa Auk Sayadaw (b. 1934), who has ordained no bhikkhunis; and the women of the mae chi tradition in Thailand, including Mae chi Suree and others. The most important Western women teachers in the Theravada tradition are Sharon Salzberg (b. 1952), Tara Brach (b. 1953), Joseph Goldstein (b. 1944, male, but very close to the women’s tradition), Jack Kornfield (b. 1945, male, similar), and the bhikkhunis mentioned above.

In the East Asian Mahayana world, the situation is more institutionalised. The major Zen teachers of the 20th century included several women, particularly in the Soto tradition: Sokei-an (Suzuki Shunryu’s aunt), Jiyu-Kennett (1924–1996, a British-born Soto nun who established the Shasta Abbey in California), and Senzaki Nyogen (1876–1958, a Soto priest who came to the US in 1906). The Jodo Shinshu tradition has had women priests in the United States since the 1990s, beginning with Hileen Asai and others. The Nichiren tradition has had women leaders since the founding of Soka Gakkai International in 1975.

In the Tibetan tradition, the situation has been slower to change. The major Tibetan women teachers of the 20th century include Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (b. 1943), a British-born nun ordained by Khamtrul Rinpoche, who spent 12 years in retreat in a cave in the Himalayas; Khandro Rinpoche (b. 1967), one of the first tülkus (recognised reincarnations) to be recognised as a woman; and the nuns of the Tibetan Nuns Project, founded in 1987 by the Tibetan Women’s Association with the support of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Nuns Project, which is associated with the Geden Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala, has been the major institutional support for the education and training of Tibetan nuns in exile. The first full gelongma (Tibetan bhikshuni) ordinations took place in Hong Kong in 2011, with 300 nuns from the Tibetan tradition taking the Pravrajya (full) vows; the 2011 Hong Kong ordination is the most significant institutional event in the modern Tibetan women’s movement.

The texts on women #

The texts on women in Buddhism are mixed. The Pali Canon includes several passages in which the Buddha is reported to have spoken against the ordination of women, including the often-quoted passage from the Cullavagga in which he is said to have said that the admission of women into the Sangha would shorten the life of the Dharma by 500 years. The same text, in the same passage, includes the more nuanced teaching that women are capable of full awakening — that the “dharma-vision” (insight) does not depend on sex. The contradiction is real; the various passages have been the basis of the long debate about the Buddha’s actual position on women.

The Mahayana sutras are, on the whole, more positive. The Vimalakirti Sutra — one of the most influential Mahayana texts — features a laywoman (Vimalakirti’s wife) who is described as a “great bodhisattva” and who preaches to the assembly. The Lotus Sutra includes the famous Dragon King’s daughter chapter, in which an eight-year-old girl achieves Buddhahood, demonstrating that the bodhisattva path is not limited by sex. The Srimaladevisimhanada Sutra (The Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala) presents the teaching of Buddha-nature through a laywoman, Queen Srimala. The Mahayana tradition, on the textual level, has been much more positive about women’s spiritual capacities than the early Pali texts.

The Tibetan tradition has a particular textual resource: the tara literature. Tara (in Tibetan, Dölma) is a female bodhisattva, often described as the female counterpart of Avalokiteshvara. The most important Tara text is the Praises of the Twenty-One Taras (Barched Lha Nyingpo), recited daily in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries. The Tibetan tara devotion is one of the most popular religious practices in the Tibetan world and has been an important support for the Tibetan women’s movement.

The contemporary women’s movement #

The contemporary Buddhist women’s movement is, in the 2020s, an active and increasingly organised force in the global tradition. The major institutional forms:

  • Sakyadhita: The International Association of Buddhist Women, founded in 1987. The network has held international conferences every two years since 1987; the proceedings of the conferences are published as Sakyadhita International Conference Proceedings and are an important scholarly resource.
  • The International Theravada Bhikkhuni Association (ITBA), founded in 2013. The ITBA maintains a database of Theravada bhikkhunis, supports training programmes, and organises the international conferences of Theravada bhikkhunis.
  • The Tibetan Nuns Project, founded in 1987. The TNP has supported the education and training of over 700 Tibetan nuns, including the establishment of the Nuns’ Community in Bodh Gaya (2006), the first Tibetan nunnery in India to give nunnery-resident nuns access to Buddhist education equivalent to that of monks.
  • The Sakyadhita Youth programme, for women under 30 in Buddhist practice.
  • The Buddhist Nuns of Korea, who have their own association and a long history of institutional engagement, including the recent (2015) push for equal ordination in the Jogye Order.
  • The Alliance for Bhikshunis in the Mahayana world, founded in 2012 and based in Taiwan, which supports bhikshuni ordination and training throughout the Mahayana world.

Open questions #

The contemporary women’s movement in Buddhism faces a number of open questions, and the answers are not all clear:

  • The institution question. Whether the bhikkhuni order will be fully restored in the Theravada world, and whether the Tibetan gelongma ordination will become standard, are open questions that will be answered in the next decades. The 2011 Hong Kong ordination was a major step forward; the 2014 Bodhinyana controversy and the 2018 ordinations in Bodh Gaya indicate that the process is ongoing.
  • The teaching question. Whether women will be able to give formal teachings to bhikkhu/bhikshu Sanghas, and whether the most senior teaching roles in the tradition will be open to women, are also open. The 21st Dalai Lama has indicated that women can be reincarnated as tülkus; the question of whether the institution of the Dalai Lama itself could be a woman is one of the most discussed in contemporary Tibetan Buddhism.
  • The question of Buddhist feminism. Whether the women’s movement should be understood as part of the general Western feminist tradition, or as a specifically Buddhist expression of the bodhisattva ideal, is a contested question. Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabrielle Park have argued for the framework of Buddhist feminism; Karma Lekshe Tsomo has been more careful to frame the movement in terms of the bodhisattva ideal and the inherent capacity of all beings for awakening.
  • The question of race and class. The Western convert women’s movement has been largely white and middle-class; the Asian women’s movement has had different priorities. The Buddhist Women of Color network, founded in 2018, has begun to address the intersection of race, class, and gender in the women’s movement.

Sources & further reading #

  • Diana Y. Paul, Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in Mahayana Tradition (University of California Press, 1979, 2nd ed. 1985) — the foundational text of Western scholarship on women in Buddhism.
  • Karma Lekshe Tsomo, ed., Buddhism Through American Women’s Eyes (Snow Lion, 2006) and Eminent Buddhist Women (SUNY Press, 2014) — the most comprehensive collection of contemporary essays.
  • Hin-Tsang Bhikshuni Wu Yin with Hsing Yun, Buddhism: A Modern Woman’s Perspective (Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2004) — the Mahayana bhikshuni view.
  • Sister Khanti Kirti (formerly Elizabeth Cook), The Sound of the One Hand: A Biography of Baian Vihan Rinpoche (Tuttle, 2002) — the memoir of one of the early Western women in the Tibetan tradition.
  • Maxine Hong Kingston, The Fifth Book of Peace (Knopf, 2003) — the Chinese-American writer on Buddhist practice, with particular attention to the women’s experience.
  • Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabrielle Park, Guidelines for Interreligious Cooperation on the question of gender (various publications) — for the Buddhist feminist framework.
  • Christopher Queen, Charles Prebish and Damien Keown, eds., The Faces of Buddhism in America (University of California Press, 1998) — the standard scholarly collection.
  • Sarah H. Jacoby, Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (Columbia, 2014) — the most thorough scholarly treatment of a Tibetan woman practitioner’s autobiography.
  • Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness (Shambhala, 1991) and the When Things Fall Apart and The Places That Scare You — the Western Tibetan teacher’s most influential books, written for a general audience but drawing on the Tibetan tradition.
  • Chatsumarn Kabilsingh (Bhikkhuni Dhammananda), Buddhism and Gender: A Thai Perspective (2004) — the Thai feminist Buddhist scholar’s main English-language work.
  • The website of Sakyadhita (sakyadhita.org) and of the Tibetan Nuns Project (tibetannunsproject.org) — the most current institutional sources.