Bhikshunī (bhikṣunī), Skt. (Pali, bhikkunī); nun, fully ordained female member of the Buddhist sangha. The order of nuns was founded by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī, the stepmother of the historical Buddha, after the death of her husband. Ānanda interceded on her behalf and was reproached for this by the monks at the first council. Buddha himself was reportedly against creating an order of nuns, fearing for the moral state of the order. He is said to have been convinced that by consenting to the founding of the nuns’ order he would diminish the lifespan of the Buddhist teaching from 1000 to 500 years.
The life of nuns is considerably more strictly regulated than that of monks. Nuns are dependent on monks for their education and for certain decisions. For the ordination of a nun to be valid it must be repeated in the presence of the order of monks; a nun may not reprimand a monk under any circumstances; the oldest nun must treat the youngest monk with deference. Acts punishable by exclusion from the order are much more numerous than in the order of monks; certain violations that in the monks’ order bring only a limited suspension in the nuns’ order are punished by definitive exclusion. The order of nuns has never played an important role in the Buddhist sangha; the number of nuns compared to that of monks is extremely small.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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