Colliding Gender Imaginaries: Transnational Debates about Full Ordination for Tibetan Buddhist Nuns

Abstract

Transnational interaction between different Buddhist communities is now commonplace. These cross-cultural encounters often result in rewarding relationships, but they are also a source of religio-cultural tension and, sometimes, conflict—this is exemplified by recent disputes about proposals to introduce full ordination for Tibetan Buddhist nuns. While some Buddhists and scholars argue that the central problem around the lack of full ordination for Tibetan Buddhist nuns is one of religious orthodoxy, others argue it is gender discrimination. Drawing upon ethnographic research in Korean, indigenous Tibetan, and transnational Buddhist communities, I argue that debates around gender and full ordination are grounded in the complex intersections of Buddhism, globalization, modernity and gender—that is, sticky entanglements across difference. Thus, I propose that the crux of the problematic is less about conscious gender discrimination and more about differing and deeply entrenched—indeed, often ‘second nature’ and institutionalized—imaginaries around gender and female monasticism.