In Australia, a nunnery revitalizes egalitarian monastic tradition

An article in today’s Bangkok Post sheds some light on “the only place [in the West] so far that has been purposely established as a training monastery for Buddhist nuns.” Apparently, the Dhammasara Nuns Monastery in Perth was founded by a wealthy Australian couple who felt that their newborn daughter, should she decide to become a nun, deserved the chance to stay close to home in doing so. Dhammasara, a partner establishment to the Bodhinyana Monks Monastery (headed by abbot Ajahn Brahm), is modeled after the tradition of women’s monasticism that was brought from India to Sri Lanka by the arahant Sanghamitta in 250 BCE. The Buddhist Society of Western Australia, which serves as an umbrella organization for both Dhammasara and Bodhinaya, cultivates the inclusion of men and women as both monastics and laypeople. This is certainly a positive step for the monastically inclined. No pressure on the founding couple’s daughter, of course…