Women Under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka,
by Tessa Bartholomeusz
Reviewed by Ranjini Obeyesekere
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Vol.34 No.3 (Sep 1995)
pp.402-403
COPYRIGHT 1995 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
By Tessa Bartholomeusz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Some of the most haunting and moving
voices of the Pali canon are those that resonate through the
fragmentary poems of the theris or nuns of early Buddhism. That
these fragmentary verses have been preserved and included in the
Buddhist doctrinal canon indicate that nuns were considered an
intrinsic part of the sangha in the early years of Buddhism. Tessa
Bartholomeusz describes the transformations and vicissitudes the
order of Buddhist nuns has undergone in Sri Lanka, home of Theravada
Buddhism. It is a fascinating story of transformation, innovation,
and female resilience, responding necessarily to the political and
social pressures of a constantly changing context. The most
innovative feature of twentieth-century female asceticism was the
institution of nunneries for "lay nuns," or the dasa sil matavo. The
book is in two parts. Part 1 covers the period up to the twentieth
century: the establishment of an order of nuns in the third century
BCE, its demise, for reasons not yet known, around the 12th century
CE, the Buddhist revival at the end of the nineteenth century, and
the attempts to revive the lost order of nuns. One of the fine
ironies of the colonial situation was that it was western
theosophists and educators like Colonel Olcott who fuelled the
nationalist Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka against Christianity and
their western colonial counterparts; and it was a westerner, the
Countess Miranda de Souza Canavarro, that Anagarika Dharmapala
invited to reestablish the order of Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka.
Although the Countess's "nunnery" did not survive long, the idea of
female renunciates serving the cause of Buddhism caught on, and
several innovative moves resulted. By the early twentieth century,
Sinhala Buddhist women had set up the institution of "lay nuns"
(dasa sil matavo). These were not bhikkhunis or the female
counterparts of ordained Buddhist monks, these were lay renunciates
who, either as individuals or in small groups, decided to follow a
life of Buddhist asceticism. The second part of the book deals with
some of the organizations set up by these lay renunciates, the
"nunneries" they established, their innovative methods of
ordination, their dress and rules of conduct, and their perceptions
of their role as "lay nuns." Most of the Sinhala lay nuns accept the
fact (rigidly held by a large section of the ordained monks) that
since the Theravada order of nuns died out there can never be the
necessary quorum of nuns required by the vinaya rules to start the
order again. However, they do not consider this an obstacle to
fulfilling their roles as female renunciates. In fact, their present
situation frees them from the control of monks (laid down in the
vinaya rules of the canon), and gives them independence, autonomy,
and a sense of power. As lay nuns or dasa sil matavo, they can
evolve their own rules of conduct, create their own rituals of
ordination, and yet be part of the larger tradition of Buddhist
asceticism. It is in that sense a very creative and innovative form
of feminine resistance, worked out within the Buddhist framework.
There may be little or no consensus among the different groups of
lay renunciates on many issues, such as the appropriate rituals and
rites of passage for the novices, but the groups agree on the basic
premise that in accordance with Buddhist doctrine, women can, if
they so choose, give up their traditional social roles and adopt the
life of a renunciate. Most of the lay nuns whom Bartholomeusz
describes chose the life of the renunciate. Like their forbears in
the Pali canon, they did so because a personal tragedy, disillusion
with the world, a deep religious fervor, or a commitment to service
in the cause of Buddhism led them to renounce the worldly life.
Bartholomeusz also traces the shifts and changes in lay attitudes
toward these renunciates. During the Buddhist revival the lay nuns
had considerable support from elite social groups who were also
spearheading the movement for political independence. But once
independence was won, Buddhism was "restored," and the need for
female participation in Buddhist activities became less politically
important, elite support for the movement declined. The ideal of the
female renunciate has, however, captured the imagination of women
from the rural areas, and their participation has created
significant changes in the movement. These renunciates are less
involved in personal salvation through meditation, but -- like their
counterparts, the gramavasin (village-dwelling) monks -- they
believe in a life of service to their fellows, perform pujas and
rituals such as chanting pirit for the laity, or engage in preaching
and teaching. With the waning of elite involvement, the social
standing of the lay nuns also changed. They still get a fair amount
of support and respect in the villages, but without the earlier
visibility and influential political support they are seen by the
general public as marginalized individuals and, unlike monks, as
having no special niche or status in the larger society. Yet this
has not deterred women from becoming renunciates. On the contrary,
Bartholomeusz records that between 1989 and 1992 their numbers
increased considerably. The push to acquire ordination and
recognition as bhikkunis or nuns who are members of the sangha,
comes, ironically, from the foreign nuns who feel the need for such
acceptance most. Bartholomeusz documents their various organizations
as well as the ordination ceremonies performed, (predictably) in
America. Tessa Bartholomeusz's Women Under the Bo Tree contains a
fund of information for scholars and students of Buddhism. The life
histories of several of the present day Sri Lankan lay nuns that she
documents provide rich insights into the personalities of the
individuals concerned, their contributions to the movement, and the
sociopolitical and feminist implications of their institution. The
reader might wish the book had leas of a textbook format where each
chapter is framed by an introduction and a conclusion. However, in
focusing attention on an important segment of Buddhist society --
female renunciates, who though often neglected by male historians,
both lay and clerical, have yet continued to surface throughout
Buddhist history -- this book serves an important function.