Religious identities of Buddhist nuns: Training precepts, renunciant attire, and nomenclature in theravada Buddhism

The concept of "renunciation" in contemporary Buddhism is a controversial one. This article investigates the ambiguities latent in the religious and social indicators of Buddhist nuns as "householders" or "laity" and "renunciants." I explore these identities in textual, historical, and contemporary contexts with reference to perceptions on training precepts, ascetic attire, and nomenclature. I suggest that Buddhist nuns participate in not one but variant ideals of renunciation that are located in a politics of representation, which both includes them in a community of Buddhist renunciants and distances them from it.