Daughters of the Buddha

“Daughters of the Buddha is a much-awaited pioneer work on the early Buddhist women of ancient India who strove for their own emancipation guided by the Buddha, contributed to the historical and philosophical aspects of Buddhism, and became the source of inspiration for hundreds and thousands of women to save themselves from the drudgery of worldly life as ‘a woman.’ We have many works on the early Buddhist nuns of the Therigatha, but Bhikkhu Analayo’s perspective is quite different from the existing ones. It is the first ever to have all the teachings given by early Buddhist women collected together, providing us with access to all the important information from the major primary sources. This was possible for Bhikkhu Analayo because with his scholarship he had comfortable access to all these sources in the original languages. His presentation is simple and lucid, and the content is comprehensively supported by an analytical study. This book is a successful addition to the list of works on women and Buddhism by Bhikkhu Analayo. Needless to say, it will be enlightening research material for other scholars and will give moral support to the daughters of the Buddha of the present day.”–Professor Shobha Rani Dash, author of Mahapajapati: The First Bhikkhuni“Bhikkhu Analayo brings his deep knowledge and reading of the Buddhist texts in the (now) relatively familiar languages of Pali and Sanskrit and casts a new, shimmering comparative light from the translations of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist texts that he has accessed through his skill with languages. In Daughters of the Buddha, he brings perspectives from these texts on stories about, and statements of, the earliest Buddhist nuns and laywomen. The comparative data sometimes helps confirm the meaning or reference of a term or phrase, as in the issue of Mahapajapati Gotami’s seniority among the early nuns, or it casts light on a new understanding of the Buddha’s first refusal of her request to establish an order for nuns, while he accepted that women have the ability to reach the highest stage of the Path. The book is thus a rich tapestry of comparative data from the ancient Buddhist discourses on issues faced by Buddhist women then and especially Buddhist nuns in different parts of the modern world today.”

–Ranjini Obeyesekere, PhD, author of Portraits of Buddhist Women

–Professor Hiroko Kawanami, author of The Culture of Giving in Myanmar

–Dr. Christie Chang, joint president, International Buddhist Confederation; former president of Sakyadhita International

Bhikkhu Analayo is a scholar of early Buddhism and a meditation teacher. He completed his PhD research on the Satipatthanasutta at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 2000 and his habilitation research with a comparative study of the Majjhima Nikaya in the light of its Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan parallels at the University of Marburg, Germany in 2007. His over five hundred publications are for the most part based on comparative studies, with a special interest in topics related to meditation and the role of women in Buddhism.