Power and Agency in the Lives of Contemporary Tibetan Nuns
An Intersectional Study
Mitra Härkönen [+–]
University of Helsinki
Mitra Härkönen is a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
This book examines the lived experiences of oppression and opportunities encountered by contemporary Tibetan Buddhist nuns living in the People’s Republic of China and the Tibetan exile community in India. It investigates how the intersections of the nuns’ female gender, their Buddhist religion and their Tibetan nationality on the one hand produce subordination and an unequal distribution of power but, on the other, provide the nuns with opportunities and agency. Depending on the intersection of her status positions, the Tibetan nun can be either disadvantaged or privileged, and sometimes both at the same time.
Power structures and relations that disadvantage nuns as women, as religious practitioners, and as Tibetans, are constructed and maintained in different domains of power. In the structural domain, traditional but still dominant institutions – such as the distribution of work, marriage, educational practices and religious institutions – disadvantage Tibetan nuns. In the disciplinary domain of power, the nuns are monitored by traditional culture and the Chinese authorities. The unequal distribution of power in these domains is justified by hegemonic ideas based on religious and cultural beliefs, ideas of religion and modernity, and religion and gender. These domains of power find their expression in the everyday life in the interpersonal sphere.
Analysis also reveals that many nuns were highly active in choosing and determining their life course. Monastic life offers Tibetan women freedom from the suffering faced by laywomen. The juncture of their gender, religion and nationality also provides them with agency in their nationalism, which is both visible and more subtle. Monastic life also offers them religious agency as compassionate bodhisattvas, who aim to not only benefit other living beings but also themselves.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Part I: Introduction
Many tensions and conflicting views prevail when the “status” of Tibetan women is at stake. First, there is an often repeated assumption about the “high” status of Tibetan women. Second, empirical observations have shown that Tibetan women’s status as religious practitioners, especially in Tibetan monasticism, is “low.” Nevertheless, previous studies of Tibetan nuns imply that despite their “lower” status, life as a nun is also seen as providing women with opportunities and offering them more freedom, compared to the life of a laywoman. This suggests that there are a variety of factors that simultaneously draw women to monasticism and draw them away from lay life.
2. Intersectionality: A Theory and a Method [+–] 18-24
Intersectionality offers a theory and a method for analyzing dimensions of power and agency in more varied ways. It is argued, that dimensions of oppression and opportunities also depend on the intersection of women’s status. Depending on her location, the Tibetan woman can be either disadvantaged or privileged, or both at the same time. Moreover, she can gain agency within power relations which to an external observer seem simply suppressive.
Due to the sensitive political situation, the “field” in this study is constructed out of various geographical and spatial locations. What connects these different locations is the notion of shared Tibetanness defined principally by Buddhism, Tibetan monasticism, Tibetan culture and, at least to some extent, by a sense of Tibetan nationalism. Applying a multi-sited approach to the study of Tibetan Buddhist nuns proved to be very illuminating. Had I conducted one long, single-sited research, I would not have realized the widely shared notion of this common feeling of Tibetanness and thus would have been unable to witness some dramatic changes that took place in the Tibetan regions.
Part II: From Laity to Monastic Life
4. The Idea of Nunhood Matures [+–] 47-70
In the chapter, the various motives of becoming a nun are presented. There were both more religious and more mundane – even if closely intertwined – reasons behind the choices of the nuns I interviewed.
5. Donning the Robes [+–] 71-84
Despite the obstacles, my nun informants finally ended up becoming nuns. In general, there are two stages in the process: the act of leaving home in the process of renunciation and the act of receiving ordination. In the chapter, these two stages are discussed in the light of the interviews.
6. Finding a Place to Stay [+–] 85-100
Many of the nuns I interviewed had taken considerable measures to become a nun. Some had escaped home or Tibet in order to be a nun and many had struggled to search for a place they could dedicate their lives to religious pursuits. The chapter discusses these obstacles.
7. Life as a Nun [+–] 101-127
The nunneries follow an observable daily schedule. Whereas many of my interviewees stressed the happiness they found in monastic life, there still were various difficulties that they encountered in monasticism. The laity, for instance, prefers monks for most rituals, leaving nuns to perform more basic tasks that accumulate merit. From the nuns’ side, this has a very negative consequence vis-à-vis their economic situation: nunneries and individual nuns are supported less than monasteries and monks. Furthermore, the oppressive political situation and restrictions they faced in religious life caused some of my nun informants to flee their motherland.
Part III: Tibetan Nuns in Domains of Power
In Tibetan society, traditional institutions such as marriage, family, the distribution of work, education practices and religious bodies have traditionally organized and continue to order the subordination of Tibetan women. Furthermore, in the context of contemporary Tibet-China, the Chinese polity, its laws and economic systems can be seen as disadvantaging Tibetan women in multiple ways: as women, as Tibetans and as religious practitioners.
9. Internalized and Forced Discipline [+–] 146-152
The disciplinary domain of power manages the power relations that regulate the lives of Tibetan nuns as women, as religious practitioners and as Tibetans who live under the rule of the Chinese state. As Tibetan women, they can find themselves as representatives of both tradition and modernity. As female religious practitioners, they are observed by other Tibetans. And as Tibetan religious practitioners, they are monitored by the Chinese state.
10. Hegemonic Ideologies and Doctrines [+–] 153-168
The hegemonic domain of power in Tibet has traditionally included particularly religious teachings. These, along with cultural conceptions, have forcefully shaped ideas about women and the feminine. Today, traditional ideas are competing with ideas of modernity and secularism promoted by the Chinese state. Consequently, contemporary concepts of gender in Tibetan culture are a complex mix of both religious and cultural beliefs, as well as Chinese and Western ideas concerning gender.
11. Domination in Everyday Practices [+–] 169-170
Most of us have little difficulty identifying our own victimization within some major system of oppression, be it race, social class, religion or gender. However, what we usually fail to see is how our thoughts and actions perpetuate someone else’s subordination. Accordingly, it can be noted, for example, that while a Tibetan laywoman I interviewed might recognize her own lower status as a female when compared to a male, she might discriminate against nuns without hesitation. Other examples are also given.
Part IV: Opportunities in Monastic Life
12. Freedom in Monasticism [+–] 173-177
It is argued in the chapter that monastic status offers a nun not only freedom from the prevailing female state, but also opportunities that would not be available to her as a laywoman.
13. Agency as Resistance and Cultural Maintenance [+–] 178-185
In addition to open resistance, there is also more subtle opposition. The interviews suggest that the Tibetan monastic institution has maintained its significance for the Tibetans interviewed because it is used on behalf of “cultural defence” and “cultural transition.”
14. Compassionate Agency [+–] 186-192
By acquiring the status of the compassionate bodhisattva a nun can benefit not only others but also herself through her actions. For Tibetan nuns, monastic life means the possibility to transform one’s position and status in this life, but it is also believed that monastic life can lead to a better rebirth (namely, release from a lowly female rebirth in the future). Thus it is a path, if not toward immediate enlightenment, at least toward a better rebirth.
15. Increasing Opportunities [+–] 193-197
When looking at the structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal domains discussed above, many changes can be found. There are changes particularly with the increasing number of nunneries and the nuns’ improved chances for higher religious education. The new roles of the nuns as non-violent freedom fighters, their increasing numbers, and their mission as culture “preservers” seem to have changed their status and the ways in which they are viewed by society.
Part V: Conclusion
16. Between Oppression and Opportunities [+–] 201-208
In the light of my research, it can be suggested that when trying to understand the relationship between women and religion, it is not enough to focus merely on gender and religion. Apart from religious doctrines and practices, gender intersects many other dimensions. Religious women are not merely women and religious practitioners; they are also women with a certain social and economic position, women with a certain ethnic background and nationality, and women of different ages, social backgrounds, sexual orientations and ideologies. When the intersections of these are investigated in different domains of power, the question of “status” becomes extremely complex and multifaceted.
