Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women

The main content of Sisters in Solitude is organized around the study, translation, and comparison of two bhikṣuṇī disciplinary traditions. The opening chapter places the Bhikṣuṇī Prātimokṣa Sūtras in their Vinaya context, explaining the role of monastic discipline as the foundation of Buddhist religious life and outlining the categories of precepts that regulate ordained communities. The second chapter presents the Bhikṣuṇī Prātimokṣa Sūtra of the Dharmagupta school, including the eight pārājika-dharma, seventeen saṅghāvaśeṣa-dharma, thirty niḥsargika-pāyantika-dharma, 178 pāyantika-dharma, eight pratideśanīya-dharma, 100 śaikṣa-dharma, and seven adhikaraṇa-śamatha-dharma. The third chapter presents the Mūlasarvāstivāda bhikṣuṇī code preserved in Tibetan translation, including its corresponding categories of grave offences, disciplinary procedures, forfeiture rules, confession rules, training rules, and methods for resolving disputes. The fourth chapter compares the two traditions, examining their structure, content, categories of offence, and specific textual differences. The final chapter, “Linking Past and Future,” reflects on the relevance of these texts for contemporary Buddhist women, especially the continuity and restoration of full ordination for nuns. Throughout the book, Karma Lekshe Tsomo demonstrates that bhikṣuṇī discipline is not merely a legal code but a living ethical framework through which Buddhist women have cultivated spiritual practice, communal identity, and institutional continuity.