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RE: The Early Schools of Indian Buddhism Series
@reddust Very informative sharing. My question will be that way. What is the Role of Women in Buddhism? As far as I know, Buddhism believed in gender equality, but in time Buddhist communities formed patriarchal structures that could not be basically based on Buddhist teachings. While Buddhist women are clearly dependent on men, some nuns consider it a humble practice.
The role of women in Buddhism is dependent on the culture and has always been limited. During Buddha's time, it was revolutionary for a woman to take the spiritual path and Buddha and his cousin Ananda had to debate the newly formed Buddhist community for women to join their sangha. It was and still is dangerous for women, we are the weaker sex and vulnerable to physical attacks and must be protected, which is hard to do when meditating alone out in the woods or going on alms rounds as most did back in Buddha's time. The Buddhist Nuns have more rules to follow than the Buddhist monks, and their monasteries have to compete for funds as well. @turkishcrew you can read Psalms Of The Sisters, my first teacher a Korean Monk, I called him Sunim gave me my first Dhamma lessons using the Psalms of The Sisters. Korean Buddhism takes good care of their nuns, Theravada Buddhism no longer has nuns, their order died out and can only be resurrected by a living Buddha, per the rules of the Vinaya. Tibetan Buddhism never did have an active order of Nuns, but their system did have spiritual women teachers. In China and other Asian communities, there are still active and healthy Buddhist Nunneries.
There is a growing movement to bring back Theravada Nuns order, but they will have to use a different Vinaya and nuns from a different tradition, which is controversial, to say the least, and Tibetan Buddhism also have nuns, but they have to use a different Vinaya, you can read about it here.