Bhikkhuni · Pāli: bhikkhunī; Skt: bhikṣuṇī

A bhikkhuni is a fully ordained Buddhist nun. The Access to Insight glossary defines her as a woman who has given up the householder’s life to live a life of heightened virtue in accordance with the Vinaya in general, and the Patimokkha rules in particular; her code carries 311 rules, against 227 for monks. The word is worth using precisely. Bhikkhu Analayo reserves “bhikkhuni” for female monastics who have received higher ordination, and uses “nun” for the traditions of women renunciants such as the Burmese thila shins, the Sri Lankan dasasil matas and the Thai mae chis. In the early discourses bhikkhunis are one of the four assemblies of the Buddhist community, alongside bhikkhus and male and female lay followers.

From there the history diverges by tradition. In Sri Lanka the bhikkhuni order appears to have disappeared around the 11th century, during political turmoil that had decimated the entire monastic community, and only the bhikkhu order was afterwards re-established, from Burma. Full ordination for women continued in East Asia, and in recent times the order of bhikkhunis has been re-established in Sri Lanka with the help of Chinese bhikkhunis at the Bodhgaya ordination of 1998. That revival is still argued over: because the Chinese bhikkhunis who officiated were followers of the Mahayana, objections to the validity of the lineage are repeatedly raised. In the Tibetan tradition the question takes another form again, with scholars examining how a Mulasarvastivada bhiksuni ordination could be generated. The full account is in bhikkhuni ordination.