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Tibetan Nuns Between Oppression and Opportunities

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Tibetan Nuns Between Oppression and Opportunities Tibetan Nuns between Oppression and Opportunities An Intersectional Study Mitra Härkönen Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XII (Unioninkatu 34), on the 11th of January, 2017 at 12 o’clock. Publications of the Institute for Asian and African Studies 19 ISBN 978-951-51-2829-4 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-2830-0 (PDF) ISSN 1458-5359 http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Unigrafia Helsinki 2016 Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been possible without all the brave Tibetan nuns and other interviewees who generously opened up their lives to me. I owe my deepest gratitude to these people. I would also like to thank my bright Tibetan field assistants: Aga, Cindy, Jigme, Linda, Margaret, Pema and Wanda. I am truly thankful to my supervisors Professor René Gothóni, Professor Juha Janhunen and Dr. Eva Maria Korsisaari for their academic guidance. I thank René for his encouragement, support, and patience. Even if he lost his faith in me as years went by and I got little done, he never showed that. He also wrote dozens of references for my grant applications, which often paid off. It has never been boring to work with Juha. I am grateful for his support and thank him for not leaving me alone when things got complicated with visas and other bureaucracy. I would not have finished this study without Eva Maria who is one of the wisest and most compassionate people I have ever met. Her enthusiasm, encouragement, and strong faith in my subject and me were crucial when I tried to finish my thesis. She immediately understood what I was trying to accomplish with nuns and intersectionality and pushed me to go further with my analysis. I am indebted to my pre-examiners, Professor Morny Joy from the University of Calgary and Professor Hanna Havnevik from the University of Oslo, for their insightful comments and suggestions on my PhD manuscript. Needless to say, all the errors that remain are entirely my own. Even though I came from another discipline and department, people in the Study of Religions immediately made me feel at home. I cannot thank them enough for all the support and knowledge I have received during these years. I would like to show my special gratitude to Professor Tuula Sakaranaho, whose critical yet encouraging comments on my dissertation manuscript made me think over and improve many parts of it. I am also indebted to Alexandra Bergholm especially for helping me to improve my English. Other staff members, above all Terhi Utriainen, Heikki Pesonen and Riku Hämäläinen, also made their support available in a number of ways and countless times… I would like to thank my previous and more recent colleagues for enlightening discussions, practical help, support and friendship. Thank you Nina Maskulin, Ville Husgafvel, Maija and Albion Butters, Aila Viholainen, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Helena Kupari, Mikko Sillfors, Katja Ritari, Mari Rahkala-Simberg, Johanna Konttori, Elisa Heinämäki, Mira Karjalainen, and Salome Tuomaala. Being far from Tibet it was precious to have our own Amdo Qinghai group led by Professor Janhunen here in Helsinki. I would like to thank all the former and present members of our group and especially those with whom I worked more closely: Kalsang Gyamtso, Wu Qi, Tiina Hyytiäinen, Anja Lahtinen, Erika Sandman, Aila Pullinen, Marja Peltomaa, and Mikko Suutarinen. There are also many others who share my (academic) interest in Tibet and whom I would like to mention here. Of them, my special thanks go to Dr Joona Repo whose knowledge about Tibetan Buddhism seems inexhaustible. I am also very thankful to Thupten Rikey for taking the time to read and comment on my manuscript. Further, I want to mention and thank Riika Virtanen, Matthew Lindén, Sangguo, Lhundrub Dorji, Maria Suominen, and Juha Komppa. Our feminist writing group was highly important when I was writing the theoretical part of the work. I would like to thank Nina Järviö, Maija Lähteenmäki, Satu Sundström, and Liisa Tuomi for their valuable comments and reflections. This project has been funded by the following institutions: Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, Otto A. Malm Foundation, The Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, and the University of Helsinki. I warmly thank these institutions for making this project financially possible. Last but not the least, I wish to thank my family and friends. I am forever indebted to my loving parents for their encouragement and trust in me. I am sure they were often worried when I traveled by myself in India and Tibet but they never tried to stop me. I also want to thank them for taking such good care of our children when needed. I am also very lucky to have so many true friends. Of them, I would especially like to thank Riika for bearing with me for almost thirty years. Finally, I want to thank my husband Mikko for being such a great companion and father. I am truly privileged to share my life with someone whose kindness, patience and intelligence I can admire every day. You and our children mean the world to me. Helsinki November 30, 2016 Mitra Härkönen Abstract This study examines the lived experiences of oppression and opportunities encountered by Tibetan Buddhist nuns. The theoretical approach of the research is intersectionality, which aims at describing and analyzing the interconnection of different oppressive status positions and institutions and giving voice to marginalized groups. My study investigates how the intersections of the nuns’ female gender, their Buddhist religion and their Tibetan nationality on the one hand produce subordination and an unequal distribution of power and, on the other hand, provide the nuns with opportunities and agency. The study is based on research material collected during three field research trips to the traditionally Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham in the People’s Republic of China, and one trip to a Tibetan exile community in Himachal Pradesh in India. The data was collected through multi-sited ethnography over a spatially detached field. The primary material comprises the life story interviews of 38 nuns. In addition, 49 focused and semi-structured interviews with lay Tibetans and some monks and nuns were conducted and thematically analyzed in order to gain more information about the significance of Tibetan monasticism in the present-day Tibetan society. The analysis shows that power structures and relations that disadvantage nuns as women, as religious practitioners, and as Tibetans are constructed and maintained in different domains of power. In the structural domain, traditional but still dominant institutions – such as the distribution of work, marriage and educational practices, as well as religious institutions – disadvantage Tibetan nuns. In the disciplinary domain of power, the nuns find themselves monitored by traditional culture and the Chinese authorities. The unequal distribution of power in these domains is justified by hegemonic ideas based on religious and cultural beliefs, ideas of religion and modernity, and religion and gender. These domains of power find their expression in the everyday life of people in the interpersonal sphere. Moreover, the analysis also reveals that many of the nuns were highly active in choosing and determining their life course. It can be suggested that monastic life offers Tibetan women freedom from the suffering faced by laywomen. The juncture of their gender, religion and nationality also provides them with agency that can be understood as resistance. This becomes most evident in their nationalism, which is both visible and more subtle. Finally, monastic life offers them religious agency as compassionate bodhisattvas, who aim to not only benefit other living beings but also themselves. The research shows that depending on the intersection of her status positions, the Tibetan nun can be either disadvantaged or privileged, or in some cases, both at the same time. Note on non-English terms This research contains Tibetan, Sanskrit and some Chinese terms. I have applied the Wylie transliteration scheme to transliterate some Tibetan names and especially the Buddhist concepts I use. Wylie transliteration has become a standard transliteration system in Tibetan studies. It does not give the correct pronunciation of a Tibetan word, but is used to transcribe Tibetan script as it is written. For Buddhist terms and some central figures of Buddhism, Sanskrit is also used. For Chinese terms, pinyin romanization is used. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Abstract Note on non-English terms I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1. Aim and scope ............................................................................................................ 1 Subject of the research: Power, agency and contemporary Tibetan nuns ..................... 1 Previous ethnographies on Tibetan Buddhist nuns ....................................................... 4 Tibetan women – “extraordinarily liberated” or “shockingly oppressed”? ................... 7 Outline ......................................................................................................................... 11 2. Theoretical and conceptual framework .................................................................... 11 Feminist research on religion .....................................................................................
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