88 BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER'S QUARTERLY
Himachal Pradesh in India, where she lives alongside one hundred
nuns.
The ordinations of Tenzin Palmo and Freda Bedi showed that
with the help of Buddhist communities that had maintained a bhiks-
huni lineage, it was possible to revive nuns’ orders in places where
they did not exist. After all, this is how Buddhism spread in the first
place: in the fifth century CE, the Chinese bhikshuni lineage was
established by nuns from Sri Lanka.
Even though conservative Buddhist institutions have tended to
disapprove of ordinations carried out by clergy from different tradi-
tions, these ordinations have inspired a bhikshuni revival all over
Asia. In 1996, with support from Sakyadhita, eleven Sri Lankan
women took bhikshuni ordination with Mahayana nuns in Sarnath,
India, reviving the nun’s order that had disappeared from Sri Lanka
more than nine hundred years ago. The initiative was so success-
ful that now there are more than two thousand fully ordained Sri
Lankan nuns, who, in turn, have started ordaining bhikshunis from
other Theravada countries.
Even in the Tibetan tradition, which never had a bhikshuni lin-
eage as far as we know, a revolutionary shift has taken place. In
2017, the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, initiated the
process of establishing a bhikshuni order in the Tibetan Kagyu tradi-
tion. In an unprecedented move, he invited Taiwanese bhikshunis to
Bodhgaya to confer novice vows to nineteen Tibetan women. In a
few years, when these women have completed their training as nov-
ices, the Taiwanese nuns will presumably ordain them as bhikshunis.
Tenzin Palmo believes Sakyadhita has played an important role in
showing Buddhist women what’s possible. “When they see hundreds
of fully ordained nuns who are highly educated and disciplined,”
says Tenzin Palmo, “they are quite in shock because they didn’t
know such women existed.” By connecting Buddhist women from
different traditions from all over the world, Sakyadhita helps them
to broaden their vision, overcome obstacles, and realize new goals.It is difficult to change attitudes that for centuries have been
rooted in practices and structures that favour male authority,
especially if this sexism is enshrined in scripture.