Explores the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women across the centuries and across the Buddhist world. Eminent Buddhist Women reveals the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women through the centuries. Despite the Buddha’s own egalitarian values, Buddhism as a religion has been dominated by men for more than two thousand years. With few exceptions, the achievements of Buddhist women have remained hidden or ignored. The narratives in this book call into question the criteria for “eminence” in the Buddhist tradition and how these criteria are constructed and controlled. Each chapter pays a long-overdue tribute to one woman or a group of women from across the Buddhist world, including the West. Using a variety of sources, from orally transmitted legends to firsthand ethnographic research, contributors examine the key issues women face in their practice of Buddhist ethics, contemplation, and social action. What emerges are Buddhist principles that transcend gender: loving kindness, compassion, wisdom, spiritual attainment, and liberation. “In her chapter ‘What Is a Relevant Role Model?’ Rita Gross describes the need for more stories about Buddhist women, particularly those whose feats are not so fabled as to seem out of reach for contemporary practitioners. This volume advances that objective, mapping the paths of numerous, often lesser-known women who have dedicated their lives to Buddhism and inspired their communities.” — Buddhadharma “Educational and inspirational, this important collection will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike.” — Hsiao-Lan Hu, author of This-Worldly Nibb?na: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community

Explores the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women across the centuries and across the Buddhist world. Eminent Buddhist Women reveals the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women through the centuries. Despite the Buddha’s own egalitarian values, Buddhism as a religion has been dominated by men for more than two thousand years. With few exceptions, the achievements of Buddhist women have remained hidden or ignored. The narratives in this book call into question the criteria for “eminence” in the Buddhist tradition and how these criteria are constructed and controlled. Each chapter pays a long-overdue tribute to one woman or a group of women from across the Buddhist world, including the West. Using a variety of sources, from orally transmitted legends to firsthand ethnographic research, contributors examine the key issues women face in their practice of Buddhist ethics, contemplation, and social action. What emerges are Buddhist principles that transcend gender: loving kindness, compassion, wisdom, spiritual attainment, and liberation. “In her chapter ‘What Is a Relevant Role Model?’ Rita Gross describes the need for more stories about Buddhist women, particularly those whose feats are not so fabled as to seem out of reach for contemporary practitioners. This volume advances that objective, mapping the paths of numerous, often lesser-known women who have dedicated their lives to Buddhism and inspired their communities.” — Buddhadharma “Educational and inspirational, this important collection will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike.” — Hsiao-Lan Hu, author of This-Worldly Nibb?na: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community

A new history of Buddhism that highlights the insights and experiences of women from diverse communities and traditions around the world Buddhist traditions have developed over a period of twenty-five centuries in Asia, and recent decades have seen an unprecedented spread of Buddhism globally. From India to Japan, Sri Lanka to Russia, Buddhist traditions around the world have their own rich and diverse histories, cultures, religious lives, and roles for women. Wherever Buddhism has taken root, it has interacted with indigenous cultures and existing religious traditions. These traditions have inevitably influenced the ways in which Buddhist ideas and practices have been understood and adapted. Tracing the branches and fruits of these culturally specific transmissions and adaptations is as challenging as it is fascinating. Women in Buddhist Traditions chronicles pivotal moments in the story of Buddhist women, from the beginning of Buddhist history until today. The book highlights the unique contributions of Buddhist women from a variety of backgrounds and the strategies they have developed to challenge patriarchy in the process of creating an enlightened society. Women in Buddhist Traditions offers a groundbreaking and insightful introduction to the lives of Buddhist women worldwide.

This book on engaged Buddhism focuses on women working for social justice in a wide range of Buddhist traditions and societies. Contributors document attempts to actualize Buddhism's liberating ideals of personal growth and social transformation. Dealing with issues such as human rights, gender-based violence, prostitution, and the role of Buddhist nuns, the work illuminates the possibilities for positive change that are available to those with limited power and resources. Integrating social realities and theoretical perspectives, the work utilizes feminist interpretations of Buddhist values and looks at culturally appropriate means of instigating change.

This 2-volume set within The SAGE Reference Series on Leadership tackles issues relevant to leadership in the realm of religion. It explores such themes as the contexts in which religious leaders move, leadership in communities of faith, leadership as taught in theological education and training, religious leadership impacting social change and social justice, and more. Topics are examined from multiple perspectives, traditions, and faiths. Features & Benefits: By focusing on key topics with 100 brief chapters, we provide students with more depth than typically found in encyclopedia entries but with less jargon or density than the typical journal article or research handbook chapter. Signed chapters are written in language and style that is broadly accessible. Each chapter is followed by a brief bibliography and further readings to guide students to sources for more in-depth exploration in their research journeys. A detailed index, cross-references between chapters, and an online version enhance accessibility for today's student audience.

Volume 40 features research articles on Tibetan mountain deities, Mongghul ritual, material culture in Ladakh, Tibetan ritual practitioners, Tibetan naming practices, and lifestyle migration in Dali. The volume also has two folklore contributions and twenty-one book reviews. Editor's Note Articles Tsering Bum. "THE CHANGING ROLES OF TIBETAN MOUNTAIN DEITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: DKAR PO LHA BSHAM IN YUL SHUL" Limusishiden (Li Dechun) and Gerald Roche. "SOCIALIZING WITH GODS IN THE MONGGHULBOG RITUAL" Jacqueline H. Fewes and Abdul Nasir Khan. "MANUSCRIPTS, MATERIAL CULTURE, AND EPHEMERA OF THE SILK ROUTE: ARTIFACTS OF EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY LADAKHITRADE BETWEEN CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA" Libu Lakhi (Li Jianfu). "NAMUYI TIBETAN pha54 tsә54 RITUALS AND ORAL CHANTS" Duojiezhaxi (Dorje Tashi, Rdo rje bkra shis) and CK Stuart. "A MDO TIBETAN NAMING PRACTICES AND NAME POPULARITY" Gary Sigley. "THE MOUNTAIN CHANGERS: LIFESTYLE MIGRATION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA" Folklore Timothy Thurston and Caixiangduojie. "An A mdo Tibetan Wedding Speech from Ne'u na Village" Bkra shis bzang po. "Oral Narratives from Bang smad: Deities, Demons, Bla ma, and Leaders Reviews Bettina Zeisler. Mountains, Monasteries, and Mosques Barbara Gerke. The Social Life of Tibetan Biography Francesca Fiaschetti. China's Encounters on the South and Southwest Francesca Fiaschetti. Inner Asia, and the Spatial Politics of Empire: Archaeology, Mobility, and Culture Contact M. Alyson Prude. Pilgrim of the Clear Light Sienna Craig. At Home in the World Tristan G. Brown. China From Empire to Nation-State Robert Entenmann. In the Land of the Eastern Queendom: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier. Jonathan Z. Ludwig The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China Jonathan Z. Ludwig. India-China Borderlands: Conversations Beyond the Centre Tricia Kehoe. Ethnicity in China; A Critical Introduction Hilary Howes. Towards Sustainable Use of Rangelands in North-West China Lei Duan. War Finance and Logistics in Late Imperial China Magnus Fiskesjö. Chieftains into Ancestors Nikolas Broy. The Origins of Religious Violence Kali Cape. Eminent Buddhist Women Andrew Nelson. The Brave New World of Ethnicity in Nepal Christine Murphy. The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver Enrico Beltramini. Healing Traditions of the Northwestern Himalayas and Being Human in a Buddhist World Katia Buffetrille. Mapping Shangrila Christine Murphy. Tibetan Folktales (World Folklore Series)

Women have also been regarded as the source of all the sins of the world and have been blamed for the misfortunes of men in this world and the next. There is also the belief that as women, no salvation could be gained and they have to reborn as a man to attain salvation. But Buddhism has introduced radical changes in the doctrinal as well as in the practical side of religious life. Worldly life is full of obstacles and disadvantages which make people not able to gain spiritual progress. The Buddha’s teaching is therefore mainly meant for the bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs who are expected to work meticulously and are guided by a common ideal of the virtuous life. They are stridden on clear knowledge and awakening. Buddhism lays more stress upon qualities and humanity and avoids rites and ceremonies.

Combines the voices of scholars and practitioners in analysing Buddhist women's history. 26 articles document the lives of women who have set in motion changes within Buddhist societies, with analyses of issues such as gender, ethnicity, authority, and class that affect the lives of women in traditional Buddhist cultures and, increasingly, the west.

This anthology provides an accessible introduction to East Asian Buddhism, focusing specifically on China, Korea, and Japan. It begins with a detailed historical introduction that includes an overview of the development of the various schools of Buddhism in East Asia and traces the transmission of Buddhism from Northwest India to China in the first century CE, and then to Korea and Japan in the fourth and sixth centuries CE. The first part of the book contains five chapters that offer creative pedagogies that can help college professors infuse East Asian Buddhism into their courses. The second part includes six interdisciplinary chapters that explore thematic links between East Asian Buddhism and religious studies, philosophy, film studies, literature, and environmental studies.

Adds new voices to the feminist conversation and brings a rich variety of diverse approaches to Buddhist women’s identities, “the feminine,” and Buddhist feminism. This groundbreaking book explores Buddhist thought and culture, from multiple Buddhist perspectives, as sources for feminist reflection and social action. Too often, when writers apply terms such as “woman,” “femininity,” and “feminism” to Buddhist texts and contexts, they begin with models of feminist thinking that foreground questions and concerns arising from Western experience. This oversight has led to many facile assumptions, denials, and oversimplifications that ignore women’s diverse social and historical contexts. But now, with the tools of feminist analysis that have developed in recent decades, constructs of the feminine in Buddhist texts, imagery, and philosophy can be examined—with the acknowledgment that there are limitations to applying these theoretical paradigms to other cultures. Contributors to this volume offer a feminist analysis, which integrates gender theory and Buddhist perspectives, to Buddhist texts and women’s narratives from Asia. How do Buddhist concepts of self and no-self intersect with concepts of gender identity, especially for women? How are the female body, sexuality, and femininity constructed (and contested) in diverse Buddhist contexts? How might power and gender identity be perceived differently through a Buddhist lens? By exploring feminist approaches and representations of “the feminine,” including persistent questions about women’s identities as householders and renunciants, this book helps us to understand how Buddhist influences on attitudes toward women, and how feminist thinking from other parts of the world, can inform and enlarge contemporary discussions of feminism.