The Female Quest for Enlightenment

This book investigates the nature of gender bias in Tibetan Buddhism and in particular the unavailability of full ordination for nuns in the Tibetan tradition. It highlights the specific role Western nuns have played in transforming such prejudice, particularly the contribution made by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a British nun who attained fame for spending twelve years meditating in a cave in the Himalayas, and for her statement that she intends to attain enlightenment in a female body. Cumbersome decision making processes within the Tibetan ecclesiastic system have maintained gender prejudice within its institution, despite HH the 14th Dalai Lama and HH the 17th Karmapa's efforts to assist in the transformation of monastic attitudes. Institutionalized gender bias maintains the tension between an underground tradition of highly accomplished female practitioners and the institutional preference for male practitioners. Gender hierarchy and male dominance are especially painful and devastating for female monastics, and is both contradictory to Buddhist principles and to the norms of a progressive society. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of religion and gender.