Debt to the mother: a neglected aspect of the founding of the Buddhist nuns' order
As the founding story for female monasticism within the Buddhist tradition, the traditional account of how the Buddha first instituted an order of nuns has been subjected to extensive scholarly treatment. Nevertheless, this article argues that previous scholarship has suffered from a significant bli...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ. Press
2006
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Buddha 563 BC-483 BC
/ Mother
/ Son
/ Bhikkuni
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| RelBib Classification: | BL Buddhism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | As the founding story for female monasticism within the Buddhist tradition, the traditional account of how the Buddha first instituted an order of nuns has been subjected to extensive scholarly treatment. Nevertheless, this article argues that previous scholarship has suffered from a significant blind spot, failing to recognize a crucially important element of the story. I refer to this element as the "debt to the mother" theme, or the story's clear implication that the Buddha founded an order of nuns at least in part because it was his mother who asked him to, and despite renouncing all familial ties, he owed an enormous debt to his mother that had to be repaid. I trace the existence of this "debt to the mother" theme in several versions of the story (and other Buddhist texts), and I also attempt to account for its complete elision in the surrounding scholarship. |
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| ISSN: | 0002-7189 |
| Contains: | In: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfl026 |