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Sri Satguru Publications Sisters in Solitude by Karma Lekshe Tsomo
A study of nuns ethics is important in itself and is important to Buddhist studies, Asianreligions, and Humanities.Jeffrey Hopkins, University of Virginia.This study is an investigation of the moral precepts and codes of everyday conduct by whichordained women regulated their lives. It takes as its basis the Bhiksuni Pratimoksa Sutras of theDharmagupta School, preserved in Chinese translation, and the Mulasarvastivada School, preservedin Tibetan translation.For over two thousand years, Buddhist nuns have quietly embodied specific moral and spiritualvalues on their path to enlightenment. Contemplative communities offered women both an alternativelifestyle and an avenue for education. Numbering as many as one million at certain periods ofhistory, they have exerted powerful, if often unacknowledged, influence on Asian societies.Sisters in Solitude documents the earliest recorded system of ethics formulated especially forwomen and presents the first English translations of the original texts. An essential sourcebookfor studies on womens religious history and feminist ethics, it details the monastic guidelinesthat link Buddhist nuns of the different traditions. The texts it contains unite women of manycultures.The topic is very significant to those seriously interested in issues of women and Buddhism andto scholars of Buddhist studies in general.- Rita Gross, University of Wisconsin, Eau ClaireKarma Lekshe Tsomo is Instructor of Buddhist Studies at Antioch University and a DegreeFellow at the East We