J004: Engendering Buddhism: Non-Theravādin Buddhist Women in Southeast Asia

Organizer(s)

• 

  Jack Meng-Tat Chia

  National University of Singapore, Singapore

Chair(s)

• 

  Brooke Schedneck

  Rhodes College, United States

Paper Presenter(s)

• 

  Jack Meng-Tat Chia

  National University of Singapore, Singapore
• WC

  Wei-yi Cheng

  Fo Guang University, Taiwan
• MC

  Melody Tzu-Lung Chiu

  Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany
• AT

  Ai Boay Tan

  Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia

Discussant(s)

• 

  Brooke Schedneck

  Rhodes College, United States

Session Abstract:
In recent years, scholars have begun to pay more attention to the role of women in Southeast Asian Buddhism. While scholarship has illuminated the controversy surrounding bhikkhunī ordination, for instance, little attention has been paid to studying non-Theravādin Buddhist women in both mainland and maritime Southeast Asia. This panel proposes the need to study Southeast Asian Buddhist women beyond the Theravāda tradition, to include non-Theravādin female practitioners of the Mahāyāna and other Buddhist traditions. It shows how critical thinking about gender helps to address existing problems in the study of Southeast Asian Buddhism. In this way, this panel demonstrates that gender is one key to understanding the complex political, social, and ritual roles of Buddhism in modern Southeast Asia, and to understanding modern Southeast Asian society as a whole. Jack Meng-Tat Chia uses the case of Parwati Soepangat, founder of the Indonesian Buddhist Women organization, to analyze the position and contributions of a double minority—a Buddhist and a woman—in the world’s largest Muslim country. Wei-Yi Cheng examines why and how Vietnamese nuns migrated and established Buddhist organizations in contemporary Taiwan. Melody Chiu explores the issues surrounding the status of Chinese Mahāyāna nuns in Theravāda-majority Myanmar. Ai Boay Tan discusses the experiences and activities of vegetarian women, who are neither lay householders nor fully ordained nuns, in present-day Malaysia. The discussant, Brooke Schedneck, will discuss these papers in the light of her research on Southeast Asian Buddhism.

Presentations:

• Sisters in Dharma: Parwati Soepangat and the Indonesian Buddhist Women's Movement
  

  Paper Presenter: Jack Meng-Tat Chia – National University of Singapore
• Gender, Migration, and the Translocation of Southeast Asian Buddhism: The Case of a Vietnamese Nun in Taiwan
  

  Paper Presenter: Wei-yi Cheng – Fo Guang University
• When Mahāyāna Meets Theravāda: Chinese Bhiksunis in Contemporary Myanmar
  

  Paper Presenter: Melody Tzu-Lung Chiu – Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
• Neither Laywoman nor Nun: The Vegetarian Women of Miao Ing Temple
  

  Paper Presenter: Ai Boay Tan – Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman