To some religions you can only belong by birth. Buddhism does not require affiliation to a certain nationality. However, for many years His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet continually advices his large Western audiences, especially believers from other religions, against converting to Buddhism, but to better keep the religion with which one was brought up, which one is used to, which is familiar.

For more than a hundreds of years in Asia, Buddhism was passed from generation to generation.  Now, various traditions of Buddhism are being transmitted from the East to the West. At the same time, the Western ideas are influencing Buddhism in the East. Thus, areas of tension have resulted when old traditions are questioned. Westerners need to understand what is the essence of Buddhism, and what is cultural embellishment. What is real Buddha thought and what needs to be seen as a certain cultural, sociological and political background? Asian Buddhists are concerned how to keep the purity of dharma and their respective traditions in modern fast-moving times.

It is very important to have the most important Indian Buddhist scriptures translated from the Pali and Sanskrit originals, or Tibetan and Chinese translations. Furthermore, translations of the authentic Buddhist literature and the material on religious history are needed. We need to realize their meaning and implication. Western Buddhists start asking about the first adepts who achieved extraordinary states of spiritual realization and whether those same teachings that have worked for Asians are equally effective for Westerners.  Women are asking whether Buddhism is suitable for women at all, because in the West they cannot find many female teachers with equal religious titles and positions within the various traditions. For example, although in Tibetan tradition we try to catch up, there are still not many Tibetan Bhikshunis and nuns and laywomen have not attained the monastic academic titles of a Geshe-ma or Khen-mo. During the last 25 years, some Western nuns who are mainly practising Tibetan Buddhism, have taken full ordination in Korea, Taiwan or with Vietnamese nuns and monks in exile. In their Tibetan  tradition as in the some Theravada countries, full ordination  was never available.

During the First Conference on Tibetan Buddhism in Europe held in Switzerland, August 13-14, 2005, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave hearty support to revive the Bikshuni vow and donated CHF 50,000.00 as a pilot fund to realize this goal.  He suggested that perhaps the Western nuns should take the lead by exploring ways to do more study and research in consultation with Buddhist leaders in Asian countries where Buddhism is the major religion. I will report what has happened since then, including positive results and hindrances, and make suggestions how to proceed based on my analysis as a scholar of Tibetology and Buddhology as well as a Western Tibetan nun since 1981.