The Sakyadhita Buddhist Women's Conference, 27 June 04 - 2 July 04, Seoul, Korea
by Diana Cousens, Honorary Research Fellow, Monash Asia Institute
Background
The first Sakyadhita Conference was held in February, 1987, in Bodhgaya, and was presided over by the Dalai Lama. The aims of the conference were articulated early on;
"It is the common goal of all Buddhists to benefit beings and to help lead them out of suffering. Half of the beings in the world are female and we felt that it is the special task of nuns and other Buddhist women to help the women of the world to understand the Buddhist path to human happiness. We hoped that by lending support to one another, we would gain strength and encouragement to serve others better. By gathering our strength together, we hoped that women could begin to take a more active role in preserving the Buddha's teachings, applying them, and adapting them to the needs of modern societies."
Of immediate concern to those who attended the first Conference was the reintroduction of full ordination for nuns in those Buddhist traditions where it had died out. In many countries nuns can only achieve novice status and nothing more. Since the first conference Mahayana nuns have increasingly gone to those countries where the ordination has been retained to receive it – specifically, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan, and in a breakthrough for a Theravadin country, full ordination has been reintroduced in Sri Lanka. The bhikkuni is now an accepted part of Sri Lankan society. Issues around nuns have long been a major interest of the conference and its organisers and nuns from nearly all Buddhist traditions were present on this occasion. The Conference had 1000 registered participants – 800 from Korea and 200 from approximately 20 other countries. The conference was covered every day in the Korean media and articles in monthly magazines have subsequently appeared.
Conference Issues
My paper was on palliative care, relating back to my booklet, Buddhist Care for the Dying, which was distributed this year by the Victorian Multicultural Commission to the entire health sector.
My paper and a few others were classed under the heading of ‘Engaged Buddhism'. Famous engaged Buddhists in recent times include Thich Nhat Hahn of Vietnam and Sulak Shivaraksha of Thailand. Their special contribution is in a Buddhist exploration topics such as peace, social transformation, modern society, and conflict resolution. Other papers in the engaged Buddhist section at the conference were on topics such as the Chinese philosophical origins of engaged Buddhism, Buddhist ecology, community action and Buddhist women's leadership.
Supporting Materials
The Buddhist Council of Victoria paid for the transportation of 450 copies of the booklet to Seoul and it was distributed for free at the conference. A German nun offered to translate it into German for her community in Germany, and others said they would like to add extra bits for communities not yet represented, such as Korean Buddhists. It has Chinese and Vietnamese language sections and so was accessible to a range of participants.
Conference Program
The program started at about 5.00 in the morning with the playing of a Korean drum or gong and this signalled that it was time to get up. At 6.00 there was a meditation class led by nuns from different countries every day. After breakfast there was a session of talks, followed by discussion groups, followed by lunch. After lunch there was another session of talks, followed by discussion groups. After dinner there was a cultural program every night, which included many forms of classical Korean musicianship. The cultural program also included Tibetan, Andean and Hawaiian musicians and performers. Ngawang Khechog, famous Tibetan flute player and formerly a Sydney resident, performed one night and it was great to catch up with him. The day went from 5.00 a.m. to 10.00 at night for a week. This was followed by a three day temple tour, which was even busier.
The conference was enriched by the presence of some of the greatest contributors to Western women's monasticism in recent years, in particular, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, one of the founders of Sakyadhita, and Tenzin Palmo whose story was immortalised in both the book and the documentary, ‘A Cave in the Snow'. I also met many Korean nuns and became familiar with the richness of this tradition, about which I previously knew nothing.
Personal Reflection
The conference was a major event and it was a privilege to be a part of it. In Australia we are constantly battling the isolation of an island state and this conference allowed an engagement with people and ideas on a global scale. It was valuable to make my work available and have it find an appreciative audience, as well as to meet so many others working in a very profound way with different issues. The conference will result in a conference publication. It was extraordinary to receive the enthusiasm and generosity of the Korean people, who were genuinely excited to have the ‘Buddhist women leaders of the world' coming to their country. They were constantly giving us gifts. While we were there the President, Karma Lekshe Tsomo and another attendee received a United Nations Award for their contribution to Buddhist women. We visited beautiful temples, many of which were 1200 years old and many of which were UNESCO World Heritage sites. In a world racked by fear and division it was a very beneficial experience to be with people from all over the planet, many of whom come from ethnic backgrounds who have not always been in sympathy with each other, but joined together by a common purpose based around promoting peace, equality and better human values. |
