Although a group of Tibetan Buddhist nuns received full ordination in 2022, breaking with centuries of monastic tradition, the practice continues to be resisted by Tibetan clergy, writes Vicki Mackenzie in the Buddhist magazine Tricycle (Summer). Hosted and initiated by the royal family in Bhutan, 144 women became the first-ever Tibetan nuns to receive full ordination. Nuns in the Tibetan and other Buddhist lineages were formerly given the status of novices and mainly seen as serving monks, taking a back seat at ceremonies and being barred from the higher teachings. Since the ordinations in Bhutan, the response from Tibetan clergy in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama, has been one of silence. Those who oppose the ordinations argue that because they were done solely by monks (bhikshus), they were not valid. These critics claim that there must already be ordained nuns, or bhikshunis, to ordain other nuns, which sets up a catch-22 situation: since bhikshunis do not exist in the Tibetan lineage, they cannot be made. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a leading advocate of equal status for nuns in all traditions, argues that the Buddha himself allowed for nuns to be ordained by monks when bhikshunis were not present.
She argues that Tibetan monks do not like the fact that the 2022 Bhutan ordinations (and more are to take place this year) were performed outside Tibet, and that they are concerned that if nuns come up into fully ordained status, they will diminish their own power and status. She points out that only in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Korea do nuns have full bhikshuni ordination, while in Burma and Thailand they still have the status of novices, receiving hardly any financial support or respect from laypeople. In the countries where nuns have received full ordination, Tenzin Palmo says they are treated by laypeople in the same way as monks, leading to greater opportunities, including starting hospitals, schools, universities and orphanages. The few instances of full nun ordination that have occurred in the Tibetan tradition have been spearheaded by Western women, among the first of whom was Karma Tsultrim Khechog Palmo (known as Sister Palmo), who was championed by the 16th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The popular monk Ajahn Brahm in the closely related branch of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand recently conducted the first nun ordinations in Australia and was summarily excommunicated by conservative lineage holders. Tibetan nuns themselves are not pushing for full ordination, nor have they staged any type of protests, according to Mackenzie. Tenzin Palmo herself is reluctant to embrace a Western mode of protest against the resistance to full ordination, believing it would be counterproductive. The Dalai Lama has said he would ordain women in a heartbeat, but that he needs the agreement of monastic heads first. But he has recently instituted a group of Tibetan and Theravada scholars to research the issue and “see if there is some way it can happen,” Mackenzie writes.
(Tricycle, https://tricycle.org/)