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Peter
SKILLIN
JI BS
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
olume
24 Number 2 2001
Buddhist Nuns
~ii
agrii: Images
o
Nuns
n
(Miila-)Sarviistiviidin Literature
135 Ivette M
VARGAS-O BRIAN
The Life
o
dGe slong ma dPal mo: The Experience
o
a Leper, Founder
o
a Fasting Ritual, a Transmitter
o
Buddhist Teachings on Suffering and Renunciation in Tibetan Religious History................................................
 
157
Kim
GUTS
CHOW
What Makes a Nun? Apprenticeship and Ritual Passage
n
Zanskar, North India.................................................
 
187 Sarah
LEVINE
The Finances
o
a Twentieth Century Buddhist Mission: Building Support for the Theraviida Nuns Order
o
Nepal............
217 Peter
SKILLIN
Nuns, Laywomen, Donors, Goddesses Female Roles
n
Early Indian Buddhism
241
nnHEIRM N
Chinese Nuns and their Ordination in Fifth Century China
275 Notes on the Contributors 305
 
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EDITORIAL
BOARD
SCHERRER-SCHAUB CristL. 1aA. TILLEMANS
Tom
J.F.
Editors in Chief
BUSWELL
Robert
COLLINS
Steven
Cox
Collet
G6MEZ
Luis
O
HARRISON
Paul
VON
HlNO ER
skar
JACKSON
Roger
JAINl
PacImanabh
S.
KATSURA
Shoryu
KuoLi-ying
LOPEz,Jr.
Donald
S.
MAcDONALD
Alexander
RUEGG
D. Seyfort
SHARF
Robert
STEINKELLNER
Ernst
ZORCHER
Erik
 
ESA
AGRt1:
IM GESOF
NUNS
IN
(MULA-)SARVASTIV.ADIN LITERATURE
PETER SKILLING
Buddhist literature evolved over centuries across a widespread area. The Buddhist texts that we know today are social products, constituted by negotiation, compromise, and adaptation. Should
we
expect them to present a single position on nuns or female spirituality? Should we close our eyes to the positive, and see only the negative, or vice versa, according to our proclivities?
Or
should
we
accept that both nuns and monks may
be
portrayed either positively
or
negatively, and see what different texts have to say?
n
this article I look at (MUla-)Sarvastiva
din
avadiinas
from the perspective
of
a literary anthropologist, revealing embedded values and displaying narratory artefacts related to nunship. I discover positive images connected with teaching and transmitting the Dharma. The very fact
of
being transmitted and circulated -through manuscripts, sermons, or print media, in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, or modem translation -indicates that these texts have
been
-and still can
be
-living entities, things
of
the present, with the power to invoke images, motivate religious practice -and provoke debate.
We are now
in
a better position than before to study the lives
of
Buddhist nuns trom literary sources. The well-known
Verses
a the
Elder Nuns,
or
Ther igiithii,
is available in several translations, including the meticulously annotated translation by
K.R.
NORMAN
l 
The commentary, the
Therigiithiiatthakathii
-
a skillful weave
of
bardic, philological, hermeneutic, and narrative genres
:
is accessible
in
a new edition
of
the Piili and in an excellent translation, both by William
PRU1Tf2
The fifth chapter
of
the
1
Elders Verses,
Vol.
n
The Pall Text Society, Oxford (1971, 1992, 1995). Caroline
RHYs
DAVIDS
psalms
of
the Sisters
(1909) has been superseded
by
Elders Verses
and by PRurrr (see following note).
2
Therigiithii-atthakathii (Paramatthadipani VI) by Achariya Dhammapiila,
The Pall Text Society, Oxford, 1998;
The Commentary on the Verses
of
the TheTis (Therigiithiiatthakathii Paramatthadipani VI) byAcariya Dhammapiila,
The Pall Text Society, Oxford, 1998.
Journal
of
the International Association
of
Buddhist Studies
Volume 24 • Number 2 • 2001

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