Reinventing Female Identity: A Brief History of Korean Buddhist Nuns

Through an examination of historical records and biographical excerpt's of Buddhist nuns, we can see, albeit fragmentarily, that Korean nuns have maintained a tradition of religious practice and commitment to the dharma from the very inception of Buddhism in Korea, despite the common perception that Korean Buddhist history equals the history of monks. With a long history of 1,600 years, Korean nuns stand out in the history of world religion. The established theory holds that when the monks' order was formed upon the transmission of Buddhism to Korea, a nuns' order was established at almost the same time. It is a well known fact that nuns from Paekche went to Japan and played a decisive role in the establishment of a nuns' order in Japan. At present, of all the Buddhist countries, Korea is the first among the List Asian Mahayana Buddhist countries that maintain a bhiksuni order with full precepts. Moreover, when we take into account its long history, the status of the tradition of Korean nuns is very significant. They have now built a viable monastic community that has not only survived near-obliteration during Choson and afterwards, but continues to flourish and develop, reflected in the order's continuing growth, its social activism, and its meditation programs, making it one of the most flourishing female monastic communities in the modern Buddhist world.