Introduction
Myth and reality are intertwined in accounts of how Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa, a 6th century CE epic, the Buddha himself visited Lanka on three occasions, but this myth has effectively been demolished by scholars[1]. There is more evidence for the story that in the third century BCE, when Ashoka ruled India, he sent his son Mahinda, a Buddhist monk, on a mission to the Sinhalese king Devanampiya Tissa, who ruled from his capital Anuradhapura. Mahinda converted Devanampiya Tissa and his cabinet of ministers, at least one of whom became a monk following the ten precepts required for ordination. Subsequently the king set up a series of shrines and monasteries presided over by various orders of monks (bhikkhus) throughout his kingdom, and a section of the population became male and female lay devotees (upasakas and upasikas). Mahinda’s sister Sanghamitta, a Buddhist nun, also came over, bringing with her a branch of the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, which was planted in Anuradhapura. Subsequently, more saplings were planted throughout the country. She also set up an order of nuns (bhikkhunis). Mahinda and Sanghamitta are believed to have lived in Lanka until they died there[2].
The reality was more complicated. Buddhism had already come to South India and Sri Lanka before Devanampiya Tissa was converted, albeit without setting up any bhikkhu sangha (order). There is even evidence that Mahinda himself spent time in modern-day Tamil Nadu, where he preached the Dhamma, and then came to Anuradhapura via Jaffna. Thus Buddhism was as much a Tamil religion as a Sinhalese one, with some of the major contributions made to Buddhist thought and learning, including five epics, being by Tamil monks. There were strong links between Buddhists in South India and Buddhists in Lanka, and several viharas (temples or monasteries) in Tamil Nadu and the Jaffna peninsula. While Theravada Buddhism was dominant, some Mahayana Buddhists also came over from Tamil Nadu and established themselves in Lanka. Around the beginning of the 7th century CE, when Vaishnavism and Saivism regained prominence in Tamil Nadu and Buddhism and Jainism came under attack from Brahminism, it was mainly Theravada Buddhists who fled to Sri Lanka and settled there[2].
Monks, nuns, and the introduction of hierarchies
Sri Lanka was one of the few countries where a bhikkhuni sangha (order) was initiated, and presumably while Sanghamitta was alive, they would have enjoyed equality. The Buddha always affirmed that women could achieve parinirvana (a state of enlightenment and freedom from suffering and rebirth), but according to the Vinaya (rules for monastics), he was reluctant to ordain women, and agreed to do so only under pressure from his aunt and foster mother Mahapajapati, who wanted to be ordained as a nun, and his attendant Anand, on condition that nuns follow eight additional precepts (garudhammas). One of them specifies unquestioning subservience to their male counterparts regardless of age or experience, another requires them to go through two years of training before ordination, and yet another requires them to be ordained by the bhikkhuni sangha before they can receive final ordination from the bhikkhu sangha.
The bhikkhuni sangha in Sri Lanka died out around the 11th century, but lay female devotees (upasikas) continued to be active. In the early 20th century, Buddhist women founded a vibrant movement of dasa sil matavo who followed the ten precepts and played a role similar to that of nuns without being ordained. In the 1980s and 1990s, calls for the official ordination of these women were raised by Theravada Buddhists in the West. Since the ten nuns required for ordination were not present in Sri Lanka, Mahayana nuns from East Asia came over for fulfil the quorum, and ordinations took place in 1988 and 1996. Significantly, however, many dasa sil matavo preferred not to get ordained, thus escaping from subordination to the monks, many of whom in any case considered the ordinations invalid[4].
These developments point to a common problem that occurs when a religion becomes institutionalised, especially when the institution is headed by male clergy: a hierarchy develops between higher and lower clergy, clergy and lay people….
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sinhala-buddhist-nationalism-women-in-sri-lanka/
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