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Buddhist Nuns in Early Medieval Japanese Sources (In Comparison With Tibetan Yoginis and Chinese Nuns)



Author(s)

Elena Sergeevna Lepekhova

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2015.01.006

Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

A history of the formation of the first Buddhist Sangha in Japan in VI c. A.D. could serve as an example of the unique history of interaction between Buddhism and Japanese autochthonous religion Shinto. The first Buddhist Sangha in Japan, at the same time was also a female Buddhist community of nuns in this country. It could be assumed that the choice of the women, designed to embody the Dharma in Japan, was not accidental and was driven by the perception of the Buddha image at the time of its introduction in Japan in VI century, especially to compare with the hagiographies of Tibetan yoginis (Machig Labdrön, Yeshe Tsogyal) and Chinese nuns (“Bikuni Zhuan”) of V-VII cc. With a number of similarities (persecutions of the anti-Buddhists, desire to receive a full knowledge of Dharma), the information of the first Japanese nuns still differ considerably from the hagiographies of yoginis and Chinese Buddhist nuns. The activity of first Japanese nuns, consisted in the worship of the statue of the Buddha, rather remind the shamanistic responsibilities of the Shinto priestesses, who were the intermediates between people and gods. This is reflected in the early Japanese description of Buddhist monks and nuns in Nihon Shōki, Gangoji Garan Engi and Nihon ryōiki as the Shamanistic priests and guardians of the Buddha-image with a special magical status, rather than the preachers of Dharma, in comparison with the Tibetan and Chinese sources.

Buddhist Sangha, Japanese nuns, Tibetan yoginis, Chinese Buddhist nuns, Machig Labdrön, Yeshe