But these normative constructions of the position of
the female are not uncontested; tales of highly accom-
plished women—even stories of the bodhisattva in fe-
male form—are also found among Buddhist literary
sources (for instance, the tale of “Rupavat” in the
DIVYAVADANA, and the “Padpadana-jataka” in the
Paññasa-jatakacollection). Inscriptions and colophons
in the broader Buddhist world attest both to the power
of normative constructions and to alternative concep-
tions of women. Among the colophons of manuscripts
at DUNHUANG, for instance, are found both women’s
prayers to leave behind a woman’s “vile estate,” and
the dedications of wealthy and powerful female patrons
whose words attest to their central role in lay life. Tak-
ing into account not only literary sources but also
social-historical and anthropological materials enables
a fuller and more complex appreciation of the position
of women in Buddhist communities.
Women as patrons and rulers
Women have played central roles throughout Buddhist
history as patrons of Buddhist institutions and prac-
tices. Indeed, this is the role of women most clearly at-
tested in historical sources. Laywomen and NUNS(who
clearly had access to economic resources in some Bud-
dhist communities) figure prominently among the
donors whose inscriptions and colophons survive
across the Buddhist world, and they are depicted in
murals such as those found at Dunhuang and AJANTA.
Female patronage was not only motivated by religious
goals, but also by the relative freedom from social con-
straints that, in some Buddhist communities, associa-
tion with Buddhism could offer. For instance, Jacques
Gernet demonstrates how the support of Buddhist fig-
ures and institutions by aristocratic women during the
Tang dynasty (618–907) in China could give such
women access to considerable social and political
power. Such instances make clear that, whatever the
normative rhetoric about women may have been, in-
dividual women could appropriate Buddhist tropes
and institutions for their own benefit.
Among the most famous female patrons of Bud-
dhism is Empress Wu Zetian, whose occupation of the
Tang dynasty throne in 690 C.E. (she had ruled unof-
ficially since 665) heralded a time of great flourishing
for Buddhism in China. For Empress Wu, Buddhism
appears to have been both religiously fulfilling and po-
litically expedient. Through the skillful reinterpreta-
tion of Buddhist texts that helped to identify her as
both bodhisattva and cakravartin (wheel-turning
monarch), her reign was legitimized and glorified. At
the same time, her extremely generous patronage of
Buddhist institutions, scholars, festivals, and arts
greatly enhanced the wealth, power, and influence of
Buddhists in the realm. While much maligned by pre-
modern Chinese historians as a ruthless dictator, Em-
press Wu made extremely significant contributions not
only to the development of Buddhist culture in China,
but also to the betterment of the status of women at
the time. Other powerful women, such as Queen
Camadev, the quasi-historical first ruler of the king-
dom of Haripuñjana in present-day northern Thai-
land, are also believed to have had a significant
influence on the florescence of Buddhist culture in
other times and places.Women as renunciants
Due to the paucity of contemporaneous historical
sources, the position of women in Buddhist renunciant
communities prior to the first millennium of the
common era must largely be surmised from literary
sources, although inscriptional evidence should also be
taken into account. Narratives in Pali and Sanskrit
canonical sources—perhaps most famously, the story
of how the Buddha’s stepmother, MAHAPRAJAPATI
GAUTAMI, became the first nun—suggest that the po-
sition of women in the Buddhist community was
viewed from multiple and often contradictory perspec-
tives. Women were considered capable of attaining
enlightenment, and were admitted, if somewhat grudg-
ingly, into the community of renunciants. Canonical
texts (see especially the Therlgatha) tell of many promi-
nent and accomplished female renunciants.
On the other hand, to be reborn a women was un-
deniably viewed as a lower birth, the fruit of negative
KARMA(ACTION). According to the VINAYA, the most
senior of female renunciants is inferior even to the
youngest male novice, and must defer to him; in gen-
eral, male monastic institutions have controlled
monastic women. Moreover, the institution of female
renunciation was undermined from the outset by the
assertion that male renunciants represented a more
fertile field of merit for the lay community than did
female renunciants, as a result of which female renun-
ciants appear frequently to have suffered from insuffi-
cient material and social support from the laity, as is
confirmed by the eventual disappearance of the order
of nuns in most of South and Southeast Asia. In Tibet,
as well, the full ordination of women died out; only
the novice (s ́ramanerika) level of ordination has been
maintained to the present day. The full ordination of
women has been preserved only in East Asia. Still, sev-WOMEN