Bhikkhunī

A bhikkhunī is a fully ordained Buddhist nun who has undertaken the higher monastic discipline. She belongs to a monastic community governed by rules in the Vinaya.

Bhikkhu: A fully ordained Buddhist monk who follows the higher monastic discipline. The parallel role for men clarifies the shared status and discipline of full ordination.
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī: The Buddha’s aunt and foster mother, traditionally recognized as the first Buddhist nun. Her ordination is the founding episode of the bhikkhunī order.
Śrāmaṇerī: A Buddhist novice nun who has taken preliminary vows but not full ordination. Novice status differs from the full ordination that defines a bhikkhunī.
Geshema: A Tibetan Buddhist academic degree awarded to qualified nuns after advanced study and examinations. The degree marks a modern expansion of nuns’ access to scholarly authority.
Pravrajya: The act of leaving household life to enter Buddhist monastic life. It marks the earlier renunciant step that precedes full ordination.
First Buddhist Council: A traditional gathering of senior monks after the Buddha’s death to recite and preserve his teachings and monastic discipline. Its accounts include the early community in which the nuns’ order took shape.
Theravāda: A major Buddhist tradition that preserves the Pali Canon and a monastic lineage prominent in South and Southeast Asia. Debates over restoring its bhikkhunī order have shaped modern ordination disputes.
Buddhist feminism: Movements and scholarship addressing gender, power, and equality within Buddhist traditions. Bhikkhunī ordination is a central focus of efforts to change women’s religious status.
Upasampadā: The formal rite by which a Buddhist novice receives full monastic ordination. This ordination confers the status named by bhikkhunī.
Therīgāthā: A collection of poems attributed to early Buddhist nuns in the Pali Canon. Its verses preserve early nuns’ voices and accounts of liberation.

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