Brave Daughters of the Buddha: The Feminisms of the Burmese Buddhist Nuns

Cristina Bonnet-Acosta

This paper explores the ways in which Burmese Buddhist nuns have directly contested the monastic structure of Burma in which men are given a noticeably higher social status and an alleged spiritual superiority. Most studies until now have focused on the oppressions suffered by these nuns, highlighting the injustices and struggles that female Burmese monastics have to undergo in their daily routines. More recently, other studies have explored the modes in which the Burmese nuns have improved their status and exerted power without confronting the established monastic institutions. This essay looks at more overt modes of resistance that Burmese nuns have developed in order to transform the monastic establishment. Taking transnational feminist theories as a point of departure, this paper relies on the most recent anthropological research about this community and on my own interactions with Burmese nuns in order to explore the strong actions of a vocal group of nuns against what they experience as injustices and their demands for what they consider their rights as monastic Buddhist practitioners.