Request for Small-Grant Assistance to Develop a Public Education Campaign To Secure the Opportunity for Full Ordination for Nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

The Committee of Western Bhiksunis (CWB) is a committee established at the advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2005, whose goal is to make full ordination available to nuns in all Buddhist traditions, especially the Tibetan tradition. Although this goal has the strong support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, heads of various Tibetan traditions, and leading Buddhist masters, the issue is still sufficiently controversial and misunderstood within the Tibetan monastic community and the general Tibetan public that the goal has not yet been accomplished. It is widely recognized that further efforts at education to build consensus are needed.

Recently, the Department of Religion and Culture of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile has recommended that the CWB develop booklets and other materials to educate interested Tibetan scholars, monks and nuns on the issues involved in the full ordination of nuns in the Tibetan tradition in order to bring about its greater public acceptance. This educational campaign is especially designed to reach out to Tibetan scholars who teach monastic regulations (vinaya) in Tibetan religious colleges, and to Tibetan nuns, monks, and the general Tibetan public.

In order to achieve greater consensus on this issue, the CWB plans to produce public education materials in the Tibetan language that justify providing an opportunity for full ordination for Buddhist nuns practicing in the Tibetan tradition. These materials will be distributed widely in the community of exiled Tibetans, especially monks and nuns in India and Nepal. Four educational materials are planned:

• An appeal to monastic scholars that includes justification for full ordination for nuns in the Tibetan tradition based on precedent and citations of Vinaya and other religious texts.
• A booklet designed especially for Buddhist nuns practicing in the Tibetan tradition which provides information for those who might consider taking full ordination in the future.
• A booklet that introduces the bhiksuni issue to monks, nuns, and the general public.
• An illustrated booklet of the lives of famous women described in the sutras who were fully ordained Buddhist nuns.

The CWB is seeking sponsors to help fund the costs of writing these educational materials to make an important impact in changing Tibetan public opinion on this issue. Booklet sponsors will have a dedication of their choice included in each of the four booklets.

The CWB is also seeking sponsors for the next CWB Committee meeting, which will take place in December 2009 in Vietnam, in conjunction with the Sakyadhita Conference. This venue will lessen costs as half of the CWB will already be in attendance. Meeting sponsors will be gratefully acknowledged in the meeting agenda and minutes, and the nuns who are CWB members will offer special prayers for the meeting sponsors each day during the meeting.

Please help the CWB make progress on this historic effort to make the opportunity for full ordination available for all Buddhist women. You can help by:

• Funding one of the above booklets at $2500 per booklet.
• Becoming a CWB December 2009 meeting sponsor at $1900 (or $400 plus frequent flyer miles.)

Four sponsors are needed.

Generations of women will thank you for helping to make the opportunity for full ordination available to all Buddhist nuns who have devoted their lives to the Dharma for the benefit of all beings.

Please respond to Ven. Jampa Tsedroen (Carola Roloff) or to Gabriele Küstermann, secretary of the Foundation for Buddhist Studies in Hamburg.