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A Discussion Towards Transgenderism within Buddhism
Dustin Hall
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A Discussion Towards Transgenderism within Buddhism
Consider the mini film made by Tanwarin Sukhapisit titled Bhikkuni. 1 A woman
approaches a monk in a Thai saṅgha and asks to be ordained. The monk refuses because it is
forbidden; she is a woman. The woman argues her case saying, “Religion should provide
opportunities to those who have faith, rather than considering what gender they are, shouldn’t it?
So all humans should have equal rights to Buddhism.” The monk explains that everyone has a
chance to attain nirvana despite ordination, and the woman tenaciously responds, “Then why did
you become a monk?” A later scene replaces the woman with a transgender woman and the
monk with a bhikkuni, a nun, now that women are allowed to be ordained in Thailand, albeit with
uncertainty; the response is no different except more degrading.
The transgender woman approaches the bhikkuni and asks to be ordained. The bhikkuni
refuses her request citing that because she is a “transsexual” she cannot be a nun. The
transgender woman kindly replies, “But I have had an operation.” The bhikkuni states that only
makes her a “transgender,” and Buddhism does not allow people like her to be ordained. The
transgender woman delivers her tenacious reply, “But, mother, aren’t transgender people a
human just like you?” This small film specifically addresses the topic of transgenderism within
the Thai Buddhist tradition, but transgenderism is also affecting change in Buddhist traditions
worldwide by challenging the way gender is understood in the saṅgha.
The contemporary gender construct is not so different from that of ancient Buddhists. For
instance, both categorize gender based on three characteristics: primary (anatomical gender),
secondary (gender expression), and tertiary (gender identity). Both include male, female, and
Tanwarin Sukhapisit, “Bhikkuni,” Youtube.com, August 3, 2013,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSAWGNDfkGo
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inter-sex individuals, and both recognize that there are other genders in addition to these three.
The modern gender construct, however, includes language about and a concise understanding of
transgenderism, whereas the ancient Buddhist texts do not. The term “transgenderism” is
anachronistic to the language and understanding of ancient Indian scholars.
To say that transgenderism does not exist in Buddhist scripture, however, is a fallacy.
There are many narratives within the doctrine that suggests changing an individual’s gender was
and is possible. The ancient process dealt more with mystic powers and curses rather than
doctors, but, nonetheless, gender could be effectively realigned from one to another. Herein lies
the issue of the transgender movement throughout various Buddhist traditions. Because
Buddhists do not have a clear, doctrinal system regarding the treatment of transgender persons
within the saṅgha, Buddhist authorities are left to decide on a case-by-case basis how to address
transgender ordination and how to justify their decisions. The contemporary understanding of
transgenderism is anachronistic to the gender constructs in the Tripiṭaka, and the Tripiṭaka itself
is inconsistent and ambiguous in its own dealings with gender issues.
The contemporary gender construct consists of cisgender, gender queer, inter-sex, and
transgender persons. Cisgender individuals’ primary, secondary, and tertiary characteristics are
all aligned. Gender queer individuals’ secondary characteristics do not match the other two.
Inter-sex individuals have ambiguous primary characteristics. Transgender individuals, as
defined by GLAAD.org, one of the nation’s leading media resources for LGBT issues, are
individuals “whose gender identity differs from what is typically associated with the sex they
were assigned at birth.” 2 In other words, transgender persons’ tertiary characteristics do not
match their primary and secondary characteristics. Modern medicine provides access for
2
“Transgender 101,” GLAAD.org, 2013, http://www.glaad.org/transgender/trans101.
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transgender individuals to undergo a realignment surgery and identify as a cisgender person. The
Buddhist understanding of gender is not so different from this contemporary understanding.
The Pārājikam of the Suttavibhaṅga, which consists of the Pātimokkha portion of the
Vinayapiṭaka and its commentary, and which also deals with monastic rules, identifies four
genders: male (purisa), female (itthi), inter-sex (ubhatovyañjanaka), and paṇḍaka (lit. “without
testicles). 3 The modern cisgender individual is represented in the ancient Buddhist gender
construct as male and female, and inter-sex individuals are also included. Gender queer and
transgender are not specifically addressed, but the paṇḍaka classification serves to explain at
least gender queer, since this focuses on individuals who deviate from performing their gender
according to appropriate social standards.
Leonard Zwilling, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PhD.
of Buddhist Studies, reviews the five classifications of paṇḍaka agreed upon by three expert
commentators of Buddhist doctrine: Buddhaghosa, in his Samantapāsādikā; Asaṅga, in his
Abhidharmasamuccaya; and Yaśomitra, in his commentary to the Abhidharmakośa.4 The five
paṇḍaka are: jāti or prakṛtipaṇḍaka (impotent), īrṣyapaṇḍaka (voyeur), pakṣapaṇḍaka (impotent
half of the month and potent the other half), āsekap- or āsecanapaṇḍaka (gay persons), and
āpatpaṇakḍa (orgasm via special effort or artifice).5 Zwilling also notes that Yaśomitra slightly
differs from Buddhaghosa and Asaṅga by replacing the last category, āpatpaṇakḍa, with
lūṇapaṇḍaka, or the castrate. 6 As thorough as this gender construct is in the Suttavibhaṅga,
transgenderism is still absent. However, where a form of gender transformation makes an
Leonard Zwilling, “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts,” in Buddhism, Sexuality,
and Gender, ed. José Cabezón (New York: State University of New York Press, 1992), 204.
4
Leonard Zwilling, “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts,” 204.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
3
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appearance is in doctrine that deal less with monastic governing and more with abstract
philosophy.
The Abhidharmapiṭaka and Sutrapiṭaka function as philosophical scriptures and consist
of parables/sayings that explain more abstract concepts in a way that the laity can understand.
Within these writings, monks and laity can find stories of transgender persons exemplify
precepts such as compassion, emptiness (śūnyatā), and skillful means (upāya). One particular
sutra is the Vimalakīrti Nirdesha Sutra, cited here as the 1976 translation by Robert Thurman. In
section seven, titled “The Goddess,” Vimalakīrti is teaching the dharma to a group of monks in
an ashram. The focus in this story is śūnyatā, and gender transformation is used as a tool to
demonstrate that gender is but an earthly construct that does not govern whether an individual
can or cannot attain nirvana.
Vimalakīrti is expounding the dharma to Mañjushri and Sariputra when at the end of the
sermon a goddess appears and rains flowers over the crowd. The flowers fall and do not stick to
bodhisattva and other awakened individuals present, but they do stick to Mañjushri and
Sariputra. Sariputra thinks these flowers to be inappropriate for the holy sages and asks the
goddess quite irritably why the flowers cannot be shaken off. The goddess explains that only
those who are free from the instincts of the passions do these flowers not stick to. Further on,
Sariputra, almost antagonistically, asks the goddess why she has not shaken off what is an
instinctual passion of her own, her “female state,” or her body.
By her own powers, the goddess transforms Sariputra into the goddess and herself into
Sariputra. With the genders now transformed, the goddess poses Sariputra’s same question to
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him, “Sariputra, what prevents you from transforming yourself out of your female state?”7 In a
state of shock, Sariputra admits that he does not know what to transform now that he has the
body of a woman. The goddess explains how gender is śūnyatā, empty, and she quotes the
Buddha as saying “In all things there is neither male nor female.”8 Having made her point, the
goddess uses her powers again to transform herself and Sariputra back into their original forms.
To drive her point further, she asks Sariputra what happened to his female form. He replies, “I
neither made it nor did I change it.”9 One interpretation to Sariputra’s response is gender is only
an earthly condition with no consequences in the pursuit of nirvana, but another interpretation
could suggest that Sariputra had only a woman’s body but was not at all a woman for a woman
out of him was neither made nor changed. Something intrinsically about him remained male
despite having a female body.
Other scriptures that depict gender transformations, or a form of “transgenderism,”
include The Sutra of the Dialogue of the Girl Candrottara, The Collection of Jewels, and The
Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses. All of these narratives focus on a
female body being changed into a male body as a method to achieve awakening. None of these
sutra-s discusses an individual whose gender identity does not match their anatomical gender
and gender expression let alone having the desire and ability to realign as a cisgender person.
Because the closest idea to contemporary transgenderism that is achieved within the Tripiṭaka is
a mystical gender transformation or the hope of being reincarnated as another gender, it is
evident that modern Buddhist traditions have no solid doctrinal foundation to reference when
“The Goddess,” Vimalakīrti Nirdesha Sutra translated by Robert Thurman, 1978, Pennsylvania
State University, PDF.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
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handling contemporary transgender issues. How are Buddhist establishments approaching
transgenderism if scripture is not a reliable authority?
One particular tradition regards the concept of transgenderism as a non-issue. In an
interview conducted on 19 November 2013, Venerable Kyoki explains the Soto Zen Buddhist
tradition and the official stance of her saṅgha regarding transgenderism. Ven. Kyoki, an openly
inter-sex individual who has had her gender assigned at birth, has practiced Soto Zen Buddhism
for 20 years, and she is currently the head of the Zen Center of Pittsburgh, Deep Spring Temple.
She explains that in her tradition there is less emphasis on doctrine and more emphasis on
experiential teachings passed down from master to student. In every situation that arises, she has
been taught and teaches that an individual should always follow their meditative practices, their
devotion practices, and study what past masters have said about an issue if it has been handled
previously. If the situation is new, Ven. Kyoki explains it is only appropriate to ask oneself,
“What is right in this moment?” Engaging and accepting the community is a large portion of her
saṅgha identity, and it is this triad of practices on which she basis her decision making.
Aside from the triad of practices that allows Ven. Kyoki to handle contemporary issues
with flexibility, she also cites that the entire concept of gender within the saṅgha is a non-issue
because of her Soto Zen’s emphasis on celibacy. She explains that gender will never be
addressed between master and student unless the student broaches the subject because celibacy
keeps talk about gender as a non-issue. If a student is struggling with gender identity, Ven.
Kyoki explains that within her lineage upāya, skillful means, is implemented in order to help the
individual feel comfortable with themselves and continue to strive towards awakening peaceably.
No doctrine is used in Ven. Kyoki’s Soto Zen Buddhist tradition only experiential teachings and
upāya, but in Thailand, similar to the vignette given at the beginning of this paper, doctrine and
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its application in a cultural context is used in the decision making of transgender individuals’
admission into the saṅgha.
In an email correspondence with Ven. Shine Waradhommo Chai, an ordained monk of
the Theravada Buddhist tradition and senior undergraduate of the Buddhist Faculty International
Program at the Mahā Chulalongkornratchvidalaya University (MCU) Thailand, on 1 April 2014,
the Thai saṅgha is described. Ven. Chai explains that the Thai saṅgha is officially androcentric,
and he describes it as the “Patriarchy Saṅgha, organized by men, provide for men.” Women
cannot be affiliated with any official Thai saṅgha status, but a low number of bhikkuni
monasteries do exist. Ven. Chai explains that the basis of monastic governing derives
specifically from the Tripiṭaka, and, as explained above, this male-body positive doctrine
supports the higher status of males and the lower status of non-males. However, Ven. Chai
explained that even though the Thai saṅgha is patriarchal, there is indeed acceptance of
transgender individuals within the saṅgha in so far as the individual represents themselves as a
male.
Ven. Chai related two particular stories to support the ordination of transgender
individuals as long as they represent themselves as male. The first example was about a man who
needed to ordain for a short period in order to pay gratitude to his family, but he was a
transgender person and identified as female. She had to undergo a physical transformation,
ironically, and cut her long hair, exercise to shrink her breasts, and mold her appearance to be
male before the Thai saṅgha accepted her ordination (Ven. Chai was not clear if she still had her
penis or not). She was then able to be ordained for six months to fulfill her duty to her parents
and return to the laity. Another example casts a transgender celebrity in the spotlight. Jazz, who
was Miss Queen Tiffany in 2009, sought to be ordained permanently, and though she had almost
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realigned completely as a woman, having gotten breast implants and performed as a woman in
society, she still had her penis in tact. The Thai saṅgha agreed to ordain her if she removed her
breasts since she still had her penis. She is currently ordained in a southern Thai monastery.
Individuals who do not present themselves as male cannot be officially ordained but can be
accepted as a novice monk. In Thailand, it appears that it does not matter if an individual has
changed their gender, just as long as they can change it to male is ordination allowed.
What these brief correspondences demonstrate is, in one saṅgha, experience has more to
do with the decision of ordination than doctrine and tends to view gender issues as non-issues,
but the other uses doctrine to support only male ordination including those who can acceptably
represent themselves as male. Other Buddhist monasteries in Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, and the
BCA (Buddhist Church of America) have been contacted by the researcher to sample a wide
variety of Buddhist traditions and identify their official stance on the issue of transgender
ordination; the process is easier said than done. More research is needed before any conclusion
can be made about the trend Buddhist organizations are following in dealing with transgenderism
in the saṅgha. It is clear that Buddhist doctrine shows limited and ambiguous support at best in
regards to the contemporary understanding of transgenderism, but not all saṅgha rely solely on
doctrine for jurisprudence. Different factors are playing a role in the discussion of
transgenderism within Buddhism, it is only hard work and crossed fingers that enough saṅgha-s
can be contacted to find out what exactly those factors are.
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Bibliography
“The Goddess.” Vimalakīrti Nirdesha Sutra, translated by Robert Thurman. Pennsylvania
State University, 1978. PDF.
Sukhapisit, Tanwarin. “Bhikkuni,” youtube.com. August 3, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=CSAWGNDfkGo.
“Transgender 101.” GLAAD.org. 2013. http://www.glaad.org/transgender/trans101.
Zwilling, Leonard. “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts.” In Buddhism, Sexuality,
and Gender, edited by José Cabezón, 203-14. New York: State University of New York
Press, 1992.