Graduation Year
2009
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Religious Studies
Reader 1
Zayn Kassam
Reader 2
Zhiru Ng
Reader 3
Teresa M. Shaw
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2009 Amy L. Mann
Abstract
The figure of the Tibetan Buddhist nun as a female monastic is situated within a matrix of complexities and contradictions that are constituted by textual and doctrinal sources, Tibetan social views on gender and female monasticism, and experiential realities. In order to understand the situation of nuns, one first must understand that monasticism, mainly the order of monks, has been a highly respected and financially supported institution in Tibetan society for centuries. However, because the histories of Tibetan nuns and female renunciants have gone primarily undocumented, their lineages and stories are much more opaque than those of Tibetan monks. Therefore, most of the scholarship on female Buddhist practitioners, with the exception of a few extraordinary yoginis, dates after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1950s. Historically it is believed that there were a few great nunneries that existed centuries ago, but the majority of Tibetan nunneries have been smaller and lacking in the lay support and funding granted to monasteries. Currently, however, the landscape of Tibetan nuns is beginning to shift, as new resources and educational opportunities are beginning to be made available for Tibetan nuns in exile. It is on these nuns and nunneries in exile that this thesis will focus.
Recommended Citation
Mann, Amy L., "Anis of Dolma Ling: Buddhist Doctrine and Social Praxis Through the Monasticism of Tibetan Nuns in Exile" (2009). Scripps Senior Theses. 13.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/13
Comments
Previously linked to as: http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/u?/stc,66
OCLC number: 549520277