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Gender Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns' Terms

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Gender Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns' Terms religions Article Gender Article Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns’Gender Article Terms Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns’Gender Terms Equality in and on Tibetan Buddhist Padma’tsho (Baimacuo) 1 and Sarah Jacoby 2,* Nuns’ Terms 1 PhilosophyPadma’tsho Department, (Baimacuo) Southwest 1 and Sarah Minzu Jacoby University, 2,* Chengdu 610041, China; [email protected] 2 Department of Religious Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA 1 Philosophy Department,1 Southwest Minzu Universi2, ty, Chengdu, 610041, China; [email protected] * Correspondence:Padma’tsho (Baimacuo) [email protected] and Sarah Jacoby * 2 Department of Religious Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA 1 * Correspondence:Philosophy Department, [email protected] Southwest Minzu Universi ty, Chengdu, 610041, China; [email protected] Received:2 Department 13 September of Religious 2020; Accepted: Studies, 13Northwestern October 2020; University, Published: Evanston, 21 October IL 60208, 2020 USA Received:* Correspondence: 13 September [email protected] 2020; Accepted: 13 October 2020; Published: 20 October 2020 Abstract: Gender equality and feminism are often cast as concepts foreign to the Tibetan cultural region, Abstract:Received: 13Gender September equality 2020; andAccepted: feminism 13 Oc toberare often 2020; cast Published: as concepts 20 October foreign 2020 to the Tibetan cultural even as scholarship exploring alliances between Buddhism and feminism has grown. Critics of this region, even as scholarship exploring alliances between Buddhism and feminism has grown. Critics scholarshipAbstract: contend Gender that equality it superimposes and feminism liberal are often discourses cast as of concepts freedom, foreign egalitarianism, to the Tibetan and cultural human of this scholarship contend that it superimposes liberal discourses of freedom, egalitarianism, and rightsregion, onto even Asian as Buddhistscholarship women’s exploring lives, alliances without between regard Buddhism for whether and feminism/how these has grown. accord Critics with human rights onto Asian Buddhist women’s lives, without regard for whether/how these accord women’sof this self-understandings. scholarship contend Thisthat articleit superimposes aims to serve liberal as discourses a corrective of to freedom, this omission egalitarianism, by engaging and with women’s self-understandings. This article aims to serve as a corrective to this omission by human rights onto Asian Buddhist women’s lives, without regard for whether/how these accord transnationalengaging feministtransnational approaches feminist to listenapproaches carefully to tolisten the rhetoric,carefully aims, to the and rhetoric, interpretations aims, and of a with women’s self-understandings. This article aims to serve as a corrective to this omission by groupinterpretations of Tibetan nuns of whoa group are of redefining Tibetan nuns women’s who activismare redefining in and women’s on their ownactivism terms. in Weand conclude on their engaging transnational feminist approaches to listen carefully to the rhetoric, aims, and thatown their terms. terms We are conclude not derivative that their of terms foreign are not or secularderivative liberal of foreign rights-based or secular theories, liberal rights-based but rather interpretations of a group of Tibetan nuns who are redefining women’s activism in and on their outgrowthstheories, of but Buddhist rather outgrowths principles takingof Buddhist on a newprinciples shape taking in modern on a new Tibet. shape in modern Tibet. own terms. We conclude that their terms are not derivative of foreign or secular liberal rights-based theories, but rather outgrowths of Buddhist principles taking on a new shape in modern Tibet. Keywords:Keywords:transnational transnational feminism; feminism; gender gender equality; equality; Tibetan Tibetan nuns; nuns; liberal liberal rights rights Keywords: transnational feminism; gender equality; Tibetan nuns; liberal rights ས་ལ་ཕོ་མོ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་རིག་གནས་ལ་ཕོ་མོ་མེད། ས་ལ་ཕ“Evenོ་མོ་ཡ thoughོད་ཀྱང་ར ིག་གནས་ལ་ཕbodies are ོ་མsexed,ོ་མེད། learning is sexless.” “Even though bodies--Sherab are sexed, Zangmo, learning “Women,” is sexless.” Gangkar Lhamo (2013) “Even though bodies are sexed, learning is sexless.” འཛམ་གླ–Sherabིང་གི་ཀླག་མཁན་ོ Zangmo,--Sherabི་དང་ག་པར་་རང་ར “Women,” Zangmo,Gangkar “Women,”ེ་བོད་ཀྱ Lhamoི་་མ Gangkarོ་ཚ(2013)ས། ཕོ་མཆ Lhamoོག་མོ་དམན་ད (2013) ེ་ས་རབས་ཀྱི་ལོ་ས་ཙམ་་བར་ ཟའཛམ་གླིན་པའི་གནའ་བིང་གི་ཀླག་མཁན་ོ འོ ི་གོམས་ི་དང་ག་པར་་རང་རོལ་གས་རོ ས་པ་རི ེ་ང་དང་།ེ་བོད་ཀྱ ཤི་་མེད་ོ་ཚོབས་སས། ཕོགས་ས་ཀྱོ་མཆོག་མོ་དམན་དི་བ་ཆ་རེ་ས་རབས་ཀྱེ་ང་གི་ཕོ་མི་ལོའོ་ས་ཙམ་་བར་ི་ཁྱད་པར་ཙམ་་ མཚན་་ས་ཏཟིན་པའི་གནའ་བེ་རང་ཅག་ནའོ ི་གོམས་ི་ད་མོལ་གས་རོ ེད་དོ་མ་ནས་རང་མགས་པ་རི ེ་ང་དང་། ོ་རང་གཤེད་ོབས་སས་ད་དི ོགས་ས་ཀྱེ་མི་ོད་པར།ི་བ་ཆ་ར ེ་ང་གི་ཕོ་མོའི་ཁྱད་པར་ཙམ་་ མཚན་་ས་ཏ“Our objectiveེ་རང་ཅག་ན is ི་ད་མfor theེད་ད globalོ་མ་ནས་རང་མག readershipོ་རང་ག in generalས་ད་དི andེ་མི་ forོད་པར། our Tibetan girls in particular not to think “we are women” and consider ourselves inferior on account of differences “Our objective is for the global readership in general and for our Tibetan girls in particular between men and women that are based on a few biased outdated customs of male “Ournot objective to think is for“we the are global women” readership and consider in general ourselves and for inferior our Tibetan on account girls in particularof differences not superiority and female inferiority, which have been tossed aside as merely bygone history, to thinkbetween “we aremen women” and women and consider that are ourselves based on inferior a few onbiased account outdated of diff erencescustoms betweenof male or based on a few differences in physical strength.” mensuperiority and women and that female are based inferiority, on afew which biased have outdated been tossed customs aside as of merely male superiority bygone history, and femaleor inferiority,based on a --Larung whichfew difference have Gar been nuns’s in tossedphysical preface aside strength.”to the as largest merely Tibetan bygone anthology history, or of based Buddhist on a women’s few differences in physicalwritings, strength.” The Ḍākinīs’ Great Dharma Treasury (2017) --Larung Gar nuns’ preface to the largest Tibetan anthology of Buddhist women’s –Larung Gar nuns’ preface to the largest Tibetan anthology of Buddhist women’s writings, writings, The Ḍākinīs’ Great Dharma Treasury (2017) 1. Introduction The Dakin¯ ¯ıs’ Great Dharma Treasury (2017) 1. IntroductionGender˙ equality and feminism are often cast as concepts foreign to the Tibetan cultural region. 1. IntroductionThis view is sometimes professed by Tibetan monks, such as the 45-year-old monk Wangchuk who, Gender equality and feminism are often cast as concepts foreign to the Tibetan cultural region. standing outside of the main monastery hall at Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy in GenderThis view equality is sometimes and feminism professed are by oftenTibetan cast monk as conceptss, such as foreign the 45-year-old to the Tibetan monk Wangchuk cultural region. who, eastern Tibet, told an AFP reporter in 2016 that “The ideas of ‘gender equality’ and ‘feminism’ are This viewstanding is sometimes outside of professedthe main bymonastery Tibetan hall monks, at Larung such as Gar the Five 45-year-old Sciences monk Buddhist Wangchuk Academy who, in entirely foreign” (Haas 2016). This viewpoint comes up among nuns as well—in the context of the eastern Tibet, told an AFP reporter in 2016 that “The ideas of ‘gender equality’ and ‘feminism’ are standingdebate outside over full of theordination main monastery for Tibetan hall Buddhist at Larung nuns, Gar concepts Five Sciences of gender Buddhist equality, Academy rights, and in entirely foreign” (Haas 2016). This viewpoint comes up among nuns as well—in the context of the easternfeminism Tibet, toldhave an often AFP been reporter characterized in 2016 that as “The“western ideas secular of ‘gender concerns equality’ alien andto Asian ‘feminism’ Buddhist are entirelydebate foreign” over full (Haas ordination 2016). Thisfor Tibetan viewpoint Buddhist comes nuns, up amongconcepts nuns of gender as well—in equality, the rights, context and of Religionsfeminism 2020 have, 11, x; doi:often FOR been PEER characterizedREVIEW as “western secular concernswww.mdpi.com/journal/religions alien to Asian Buddhist ReligionsReligions2020, 112020, 543;, 11, doi: x; doi:10.3390 FOR/ rel11100543PEER REVIEW www.mdpi.comwww.mdpi.com/journal/religions/journal/religions Religions 2020, 11, 543 2 of 19 the debate over full ordination for Tibetan Buddhist nuns, concepts of gender equality, rights, and feminism have often been characterized as “western secular concerns alien to Asian Buddhist religious communities” (Mrozik 2009, p. 372). In her research on Tibetan nuns, Hanna Havnevik reports being “frequently rebuked by nuns for asking the wrong questions; their concern was spiritual liberation, not opposing inequality inherent in the Buddhist tradition” (Havnevik 2020, p. 273).1 Elements of this sentiment are even professed by some proponents of women’s empowerment in eastern Tibet who refuse the moniker “feminist,” according to research conducted by Hamsa Rajan(2015, 2018). The foreignness of feminism and Buddhism is also emphasized by critics of western liberal feminist overreach, who expose the ways that “feminist Buddhism” and “Buddhist feminism” superimpose liberal discourses of freedom, egalitarianism, and human rights onto Asian Buddhist women’s lives, without regard for whether/how these accord with their self-understandings.2 The charge is that this results in a reiteration of the imperialist paradigm of “saving brown women from brown men” articulated by Spivak and other postcolonial scholars (Mohanty 1984; Spivak 1988; Chow 1998; Kwok 2002). By privileging white women’s perspectives and interpretations on the feminist potentials of Buddhist thought and practice, these studies built on older colonizing logics by positioning western women as the agents of more enlightened forms of Buddhist practice while neglecting the contributions of Asian Buddhist women and rendering their voices mute (Makley 1997; Shneiderman 1999).
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