Darcie Price-Wallace

The prevailing narrative in Tibetan Buddhism has been that only men can take full ordination vows to become monastics, whereas women are limited to novice ordination vows, leaving them permanently lower in status within Buddhist monasticism. Significant changes have taken place in the past three years when a key religious leader in Bhutan conferred full ordination vows to more than three hundred nuns. Although this appears unprecedented because he invoked an uncommon exception that allows only monks to bestow these vows, historical precedents do exist. Foregrounding the voices of Tibetan and Himalayan nuns at the center of these ordinations, this project examines nuns' perspectives on this transformation and brings to light little-known historical precedents from eighth century Tibet until today.