This is the published version: Halafoff, Anna 2013, Women in Buddhism at the grass roots in Australia, in 2013 : Buddhism at the grassroots : Proceedings of the 2013 Sakyadhita international conference on Buddhist women, Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women, Kailua, Hawaii, pp. 51‐56. Available from Deakin Research Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30060001 Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright owner. Copyright : 2013, Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women Edited by: Karma Lekshe Tsomo -tt io' Oopyrl0hl Sakyadhlta 2013 Âll tlghta roserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means now known or lo bs lnvented, electronic or mechanical, including ptotocopying, recording or by any information slorage or retrleval system without written permissions from the respected authors. Buddhism at the Grassroots 13th Sakyadhita lnternational Conference on Buddhist Women Vashali, lndia. Published by: Sakyadhita lnternational Association of Buddhist Women 923 Mokapu Blvd. Kailua, H196734 U.S.A. e-mail : vaishali20l [email protected] www.sakyadhita.org Printed at New Delhi by: Norbu Graphics TABLE OF CONTENTS Buddhist Women of India 1. Examining the Date of Mahapajapatl's Ordination Kustiani I4 2.Rasic Buddhism in Songs: Contemporary Nuns' Oral Traditions in Kinnattr Linda LaMacchia (, 2l 3. Buddhist'Women of the Himalayas Namgey Lhamu 4. Ambedkar's Perspective on Women in Indian Society: Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar 26 Thich Nu Nhu Nguyet Buddhist Women of the World 5. The Changing Roles of Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen in cambodia JJ Thavory Huot 6. Than Hsiang Kindergarten: A Case Study 44 Zhen Yuan Shi 7. Voice of Freedom in Bhutan: Reclaiming Lost Feminist Voices inYajrayana Buddhism 48 Sonam W'angmo (Tenzin Dadon) 8. Women in Buddhism at the Grassroots in Australia 51 Anna HalaJoff cultivating confidence : Self-Esteem, self-Promotion & No-Self 9. Roles and Approaches of Buddhist Women in the Present and Future Thich Nu Khiet Minh 10. Self-Esteem, Self-Promotion and Not-Self Darcie Price-Wallace I l. Identity and Samsãra Hsiao-Lan Hu Is There a Feminine Dhamma? Voices, Forms & Expressions IJ 12.The Good Girl Syndrome, Feminism, and Being an Authentic Practitioner Adrienne Cochran 79 13, "New W'omen" andZenin Early 20th-Century Japan: Raichõ Hiratsuka and D. T' Suzuki Akemi lwamoto 84 14. Transforming Religions'Negative and Limiting Views of Women and Other Groups with Psychological and Social Research Allison Goodwin 95 15.Localization and Globlization: The Experience of One Taiwanese Bhikkhuni Chueming Shih Life as a Buddhist Laywoman: What Are My Roles? 97 16. Finding Space for Upasikãs in the Arurals of Ancient Indian Buddhism: Inscriptional Evidence of Lay Female Devotees Rupali Mokashi 103 17. "You Are a Bodhisattva": The Real Reason Buddhist Laywoman are Called Bodhisatlvas Hyo Jun Sunim 18. Lay Buddhist Women in Buryatia 109 Ludamilaa Dondokova and Zhargal Ayakova 19. "We Love Our Nuns!" Reflections on Lay-Monastic Relations in Sri Lanka n3 Susanne Mrozik 20.Lay Buddhist Practices in Contemporary Korea: The Co-existence of Meditation and Other- 118 power Oriented Practices Pori Park Buddhism at the Grassroots: Documenting Women's Stories 21. The Signif,rcance of the Cula-vedalla Sutta: The Dhamma Sermon Delivered byBhikkhuni t24 Dhammadinna B hikkhu B eligalle Dhammai oti 22. Beyond Text: Rebirth Narratives of Model Women in Buddhism r28 Juyarn Tsai 4 23.HwangJin-yi: The Dancer'Who Challenged Social lnjustice through Talent,'Wit, and 131 Audacity Hyunmi Cho 24. BuddhistNuns of Bhutan t37 Marie Venø Thesbjerg Bhikkhuni Revolution: The Future of the Transnational Bhikkhuni Movement 25. The Transnational Bhikkhuni Movement 139 Vinita Agrawal 26. Dress and Liberation: Ordained Buddhist Women in Britain t45 Caroline Starkey 27.LatestDevelopments on the Revival of Buddhist Nuns' Ordination in the Tibetan Tradition 153 Jampa Tsedroen 28. Proposing a Program for'Women in Buddhism: "Study, Collaborate, Practice" 158 Lisa Fancott Buddhism & Social Activism 2g.BeingGood or Doing Good? Buddhist Ethics and Social Justice r62 Karma Lel¡she Tsomo 30, From Mercy to Justice: The Animal Protection Movement of Buddhist Female Monastics in 168 Contemporary Taiwan Chuan-fo Shih ,, -r, 31. The Council of Europe's Investigation on Religious and Cultural Relativism: A Menace for 173 the Human Rights of \ù/omen? Gabriela Frey 32. Buddhism, Interfaith Dialogue, and Australian Multiculturalism t79 Diana Cousens Silence in a Noisy World ,' ' I I , ' 33. Becoming a Modern Female Chan "Master" 183 Chang Shen Shih 189 Vipassana Mctlitirliorr ('cttlcl's 34.Enacting Femaie Buddhist Roles through Brooke Schedneck i95 Immigrants' Patlt to l'ibcl'itliott 35. working Meditation: Female Buddhist Shuman Chen 202 36. The Healing Power of BeautY Paula Arai Women & Buddhism: Critical Reflections 207 Rcbirth an Obstacle? 3T. Working with Obstacles: ls Female Rita M. Gross I 212 38'GenderEqualityamongBuddhistClericsinWonBuddhismofKorea Seong Jun Lee 217 Buddhist Nuns of contemporary Suvarnabhumi 39. Buddha's Lone Rangers: vajrayana Karma Tashi Choedron 230 Age 40. Buddhism and Ageing: ln Praise of Old Tenzin Palmo Women Changing Buddhism 233 41'EnlightenedEducation:TheBasisforSelf-Transformation Sheng Ying Shi Their own Institutions and Call on the 237 42.Irnerand outer Journey: Monastic Women Create Earth to Witness an Urgent Need for Change Bhikkhuni Santacitta 241 the 21" century: Strengthening communities' 43. Why Educating Nuns is Important in e Educating Women, and Preserving Bhutanese Cul Tashi Zangmo \ilomen in Buddhism at the Grassroots in Australia Anna Halaþff This paper seeks to highlight women at the grassroots of Buddhism in Australia, recognizing their important role in the establishment and growth of this religion in a new context. V/hile women have played a prominent role in Buddhism in Australia, at least since the 1880s, they have received relatively little scholarly or public attention.r As Bouma and Brace-Govan have stated "women [including Buddhist women] have played an undersung role in processes of religious settlement, the negotiation of religious and cultural diversity and in the emergence of multicultural Australia."2 Paul Croucher's 1989 study, A History of Buddhism in Australia, provides a comprehensive description of Buddhism in Australian society up until the late 1980s.3 It covers both so-called ethnic and convert Buddhist communities, and women's and men's leadership roles. Croucher's studyremains the def,rnitive text on the subject, and many subsequent publications, including this one, draw primarily on his research. As scholars have mentioned, this is somewhat problematic, given that his impressive monograph is more than twenty years old and that it was based on his Bachelor of Arts Honors thesis. Enid Adam published a very short article on "Buddhist'Women in Australia," in the Journal of Global Buddhism, with few citations other than Croucher's text.4 More recently, Rocha and Barker's edited collected volume on Buddhism in Australia: Traditions in Change included several chapters pertaining to issues of gender and Buddhism.5 This paper draws on the above publications, arguing that a more comprehensive inquiry needs to be conducted on women in Buddhism in Australia, in order that their contributions to Buddhism, and to Australian society more broadl¡ be more widelyrecognised. The First Buddhists and Buddhist Organisations in Australia (1840s-1960s) Although Adam states that the f,rst records of Buddhist women in Australiadate back to V/orld'War II, Croucher's account both suggests and then provides evidence of much earlier encounters. Despite tales of possible contact between Indigenous Australians and Buddhist seamen dating as far back as 75 CE, Buddhists are commonly believed to have f,rrst arrived in Australia from China in the 1840s. Except for a brief mention of a statue of Kuan Yin, in a South Melbourne temple dating back to 1883, women do not feature in Croucher's descriptions of Chinese communities on the goldfields. Nor do we find mention of Singhalese Buddhist women employed in the Queensland sugar-cane industry, or Japanese and Sinhalese Buddhist women immigrants in the northern Australian pearling industry in the mid- to late-19th century. More research needs to be conducted in order to uncover the detailed stories of the f,rrst Buddhist women in Australia. Perhaps this information will be uncovered in other literature, such as Australian or Asian studies. Australian Spiritualists f,rrst began to publicize Buddhism in the 1880s, paving the way for Theosophists and thus for convert Buddhism. The ground for Buddhism in Australia seems to have been prepared bypioneers like Emma Harding Britten, an American Theosophist who toured Australia in 1878. In 1889, the first branch of the Theosophical Society (TS) in Australia was established in Tasmania and the second branch was founded in Melbourne in 1890 byElise Pickett. Pickett, a Russian immigrant from New Zealand, was described as the first "'White 51 Olcott, the Buddhist', to have set foot on Australian shores." The second, Coloncl Hcnry Steel and again in TS,s co-founder, toured Australia lecturing on "Theosophy and Buddhisn" in 1891 irl a refuge ceremony 1g97. Both Olcott and TS co-founder Madame H.P. Blavatsky participatcd described them in Sri Lanka in 1gg0, becoming "Buddhists in the formal sense." croucher also ,.great of their efforts that the as trall-blazers for Buddhism," statin