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TheSīladharā Order is aTheravada Buddhist femalemonastic order established byAjahn Sumedho atChithurst Buddhist Monastery,England.[1] Its members are known asSīladharās.
In 1983, he obtained permission from the Sangha in Thailand, to give aten-preceptpabbajjā to women, giving them official recognition as female renunciants trained in theAjahn Chah lineage. The reasons for its establishment are due to the historical loss of thebhikkhunī (nun's) ordination in Theravada Buddhism, limiting renunciation for female Theravadins toad hoc roles such as thethilashins andmaechis, neither of which garner recognition from modern-day Theravada Buddhists as genuine renunciants.
Ajahn Sumedho enlistedAjahn Sucitto to train the nuns from 1984 to 1991. By 2008,sīladharās were trained in the discipline of more than one hundred precepts, including rules based on thepāṭimokkha of thebhikkhunī order. The order waxed and waned throughout its brief history, peaking at around 14, mostly living atAmaravati Buddhist Monastery.
In order to notviolate national laws governing religious ordinations in predominantly Theravāda countries, with the notable exception ofSri Lanka, the Sīladharā Order is formally considered junior to that ofbhikkhus or fully ordained men. Over the last twenty years, manysiladhāras have therefore sought full bhikkhunī ordination with commensurate privileges, recognition and responsibilities enjoyed by male monastics. Making full ordination available to women is a cultural issue with significant implications for the welfare of young girls living in poverty in Asian countries where Theravada Buddhism is prevalent, especiallyBurma,Thailand,Cambodia,Laos andSri Lanka.[2] Speaking of Thailand, Lynne Hybels writes, "Young men in desperately poor families such as those inChiang Rai can bring honor to their families by becoming monks, but girls are expected to provide financially. Traffickers understand this vulnerability, prey on it, and easily lure girls into life in the brothel."[3] Such ordinations, however, are according to Buddhism itself motivated by wrongview; in particular, bycareerism oreconomism, rather than by a sense ofsaṁvega and genuinerenunciation.[4]
After years of thorough discussion, Ajahn Sumedho issued a "Five-Point Declaration" concerning women's roles and rights in the Amaravati monastic community.[5][6] This affirmed thestatus quo of seniority of male over female monastics. The declaration holds that while some teaching and management responsibilities are shared between the two orders according to capability, the Siladhara Order is unequivocally junior to that of the monks.
Many consider the "Five-Point Declaration" to bediscriminatory against women.[7][8] Some monastics and scholars also consider it to be an inaccurate interpretation of thevinaya and other texts,[9][10] similar to theThree-Fifths Compromise in theUnited States Constitution or other codified examples of discrimination such ascoverture. In addition, the violations of national law that had been sought to avoid were distinct from thevinaya itself, as argued byAjahn Brahmavaṁso on the same matter.[11]
Despite Ajahn Sumedho's best efforts at balancing contending interests, many female monastics living at Amaravati at the time left the monastery citingdiscrimination andlack of compassion on the part of Amaravati leadership.[12] Subsequently, twosīladharās from this group foundeda community in theUnited States.[13] Along with numerous other women in recent years, these former Sīladharās have taken full bhikkhunī ordination.[14][15]
A number ofBuddhistmonastics worldwide have seen limitations, contradictions and ahistoricism in structural approaches to the Siladhara Order. On 22 October 2009Ajahn Brahm facilitated an ordination ceremony forbhikkhunis where four female Buddhists, Venerable Ajahn Vayama, and Venerables Nirodha, Seri and Hasapanna, were ordained into Ajahn Brahm's lineage.Bhante Sujato along with his teacherAjahn Brahm were involved with re-establishingbhikkhuniOrdination in the Forest sangha of Ajahn Chah.[10] Sujato along with other scholars such as Brahm andBhikkhu Analayo had come to the conclusion that there was no valid reason the extinctbhikkhuni order couldn't be re-established. The ordination ceremony led to Brahm's expulsion from the Thai Forest Lineage of Ajahn Chah. The ordination ceremony took place at Ajahn Brahm's Bodhinyana Monastery at Serpentine (near Perth, WA), Australia. For his actions of 22 October 2009, on 1 November 2009, at a meeting of senior members of the Thai monastic sangha, held atWat Pah Pong,Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, Brahm was removed from the Ajahn Chah Forest Sangha lineage and is no longer associated with the main monastery in Thailand, Wat Pah Pong, nor with any of the other Western Forest Sangha branch monasteries of the Ajahn Chah tradition.Bhante Sujato, remaining faithful to his convictions that there was no reason the order should not be revived, went on to found Santi Forest Monastery, and followingBhante Sujato's wishes, Santi became aBhikkhunī (Buddhistnun's)monasteryVihara in 2012.[16][17][18][19][20]
In this brief account Ajahn Sucitto offers an outline of the considerations that went into formulating a Rule for the nuns.
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