How Buddhism Shapes Gender Politics in Nepal

Write a 5 page/approx 5000 word research paper on the topic
below. The paper must be single spaced, 10 point font with one
inch margins. Use footnote citations for all ideas, information
and quotations. Include page numbers on the bottom of each
page and your name and tutorial number at the top of the first
page. The last page should include an alphabetical bibliography
of all of the sources you consulted to write the paper.
How does Buddhism shape social life and politics? Offer an
analysis of how the ideas, texts, symbols, ethics and/or
practices of Buddhism shape social hierarchies and politics in
terms of:
Ethnicity
Gender
Nationalism
Sexuality
Warfare
Modernity vs Traditionalism
You must focus on one historical event, issue, movement or
problem,
In one geographical place (one country or better yet one region
in one country)
And one time period.
If you write on the 19th, 20th, or 21st centuries you must focus
on a 20 year period
You must identify at least two different interpretations of
Buddhism operative in the event/issue/movement and explain
how each interpretation has established it authority.
IMPORTANT:
How does Buddhism shape social life and politics? Offer an
analysis of how the ideas, texts, symbols, ethics and/or
practices of Buddhism shape social hierarchies and politics in
terms of: • Ethnicity • Gender • Nationalism • Sexuality •

Warfare • Modernity vs Traditionalism You must focus on one
historical event, issue, movement or problem, ★ In one
geographical place (one country or better yet one region in one
country) ★ And one time period. If you write on the 19th, 20th,
or 21st centuries you must focus on a 20 year period If you
write on the 18th century or earlier you must focus within 100
years. You must identify at least two different interpretations of
Buddhism operative in the event/issue/ movement and explain
how each interpretation has established it authority. The topic is
completely open to you to choose. For those who would like
some inspiration here are some places to start. Please note that
if you start with sources suggested below you must find other
sources on your own later.
PLEASE FILL THIS UP, AND SEND IT… SO I GET THE
IDEA OF HOW YOU WILL DO THIS ESSAY! THANK U!

Thesis: This is the thesis which explains the argument you are
making! Please just write approximately 2 sentences!
1. Sub-Claim One
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
3. Evidence
2. Sub-Claim Two
1. Sub-sub claim (maybe not necessarily)
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
2. Sub-sub claim
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
3. Sub-claim three
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
I CHOSE: GIRLS AND RITUALS IN BURMA, NEPAL!
My BIBLIPGRAPHY: IT MIGHT HELP YOU! IT ASKS ME TO
CHOOSE one historical event, issue, movement or problem! I
BELIEVE I HAVE CHOSEN A PROBLEM! It is that women
need to have rights in Nepal! And should be treated equally in
religion, tradition, and politics! I CHOSE 20TH CENTURY!
PLEASE simply follow the instructions on the top! Thank you
so much!
Please kindly use scholarly websites or books. Thank u

BIBLIOGRAPHY
GIRLS AND RITUALS
Gulsheen Kohli
1. CHICAGO CITATION:
"Nepal Style: Rites of Passage." Hindu's Today. September
2010.
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?
itemid=5100.
-When a girl begins menstruating, everything changes. She is no
longer a child but a fertile woman, able to conceive and bear
children.
- Her ability to hold and bring forth life is an auspicious thing,
worthy of celebration. But menstrual blood, particularly the
first time, is frightening and impure. The barah rite of passage
reconciles this contradiction by "purifying the womb" before the
first menstruation.
- During barah a girl goes back into the earth. For twelve days,
she stays in a "cave," a room in her house heavily curtained,
with the windows papered over. Under no circumstances may
she see the sun, or the face of any man, including her father,
brothers and other relatives. For the first four days, she
observes strict purifying restrictions.
- She may not eat salt, may not comb her hair, may not see a
mirror, and must sit on straw wearing just a petticoat to eat her
plain meal. Her family may still do puja and attend feasts
during these four days.
-But on the fifth day, the family enters a state of pollution
similar to that caused by childbirth, while the girl in barah ends
her austerities and begins to beautify herself. Presented with a
traditional beauty scrub made of roasted grains (kon) and
mustard oil (chikan), she starts to "make herself fairer." She
practices putting on her mother's old saris, wears silver anklets,
and plays with makeup.
- For some it is joyful and even thrilling time, when they

experienced at a profound level the positive value of their
female bodies and the changes puberty would bring. "All of our
female relatives have to come to feed us while we are in the
barah," Rajani Maharjan remembered. "They feed us special
foods--roasted peas and soybeans, corn, peanuts, sugarcane,
yogurt, beaten rice--all kinds of things the earth yields to give
us strength. We feel ourselves to be so special." With lots of
cousins and friends in the barah room with them, the girls play
games, dance, put makeup on each other and giggle.
IHI:
-One hundred four- to nine-year-old girls dressed as brides.
Their clothes were magnificent red brocade or gold cloth. Their
hands and feet had been reddened, and they were resplendent
with gold jewelry. These little girls were undergoing an
initiation known as ihi.
Because there is no rite of passage for girls that explicitly
corresponds to the upanayana or bartaman ritual for boys,
Newars conduct the ihi ritual for pre-pubescent girls.
-the central event of ihi is a symbolic wedding, in which the
girl's father holds his daughter on his lap and gives her in
marriage to a divine groom, represented by a bel (wood apple)
fruit.
-In Buddhism, the groom is Sudhana Kumara, the ideal Buddha-
like husband. Whichever the case, the ritual is not so much
about a divine husband, but about a father and his daughter.
Through ihi, a girl enjoys full membership in her father's family
and caste. It is only after ihi that a girl can marry.
-After ihi, girls are reminded to act more grown up. "They say
that after ihi, we shouldn't sit on our father's lap anymore,"
Rajani Maharjan continued. "My mother would say, you've had
your ihi, so you should be careful about how and what you eat."
The ihi ceremony takes two full days. Involving far more than

the symbolic wedding, it is a celebration of the girls' gender.
Importance of gender, of how they are girls and how they get
special treatments.
-Led by a tantric Buddhist priest and performed by their parents
and other relatives, the girls are worshiped just as a queen or a
Goddess would be. The ceremonies convey the message that the
girl's person is powerful, generative and good.
Greenhalgh, Jane. "A Girl Gets Her Period And Is Banished To
The Shed." Stories of Life in a Changing World. October 17,
2015.
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/17/44917670
9/horrible-things-happen-to-nepali-girls-when-they-menstruate-
15girls.
Notes:
-"When I'm having my period, I can't touch my grandmother, I
can't eat while she's eating. I can't touch the table while she's
eating. I can't touch my father, I can't touch my mother," she
says.
-nonprofit is working with girls and women in western Nepal to
end a tradition called chaupadi
-that's held them back for thousands of years: "When they are
menstruating, no matter what, they stay outside, they eat outside
and they sleep outside," Shrestha says.
3. BOOK:
Franken, Nicki Yackley. Teens In Nepal.
Page 64- Women in Nepal usually work harder and longer than
men.
-most women and teens wake up early to start the housework,
without modern appliances, they wash dishes, clothes and clean
the house.
-They cook over a fire or a small burner.
-Men do little to help raise the children, so woman have double

the responsibility. They take care of the house as well as raise
the kids.
-Female teens, have to go to school and are expected to help
around the house as much as possible, equivalent to class.
-daughters and mothers work in the fields and create
handicrafts. Such as baskets, jewlwery, sold for profit.
-teen girls spend hours, and many days, under the hot sun
picking the ripe rice stalks or the golden wheat.
Page 58-along with marrying young, Nepali women become
mothers early. More than 40 percent of nepali women are
mothers by the time they turn 19.
"Lifestyle and Activities." The Ultimate Guide To Myanmar.
May 21, 2006. http://www.myanmar.cm/lifestyle/shin_pyu.html.
-the Shinbyu or novitiation ceremony is one of the most
important events in a Buddhist's life in Myanmar. Novitiation
means allowing boys to enter the Buddha's Order of Sangha (or
monks) as a novice after shaving their heads, donning robes,
and asking permission in Pali to become a novice.
-in this the girls have a little role, not too much.
-When the procession begins, the boys ride the caparisoned
horses, shaded with gilded umbrellas, accompanied by parents,
family members and local women girls carrying sets of yellow
robes, offerings and an ornate betel box.
-A band of music troupe and dancers accompanies the
procession which leads to a suburban nat or spirit home where
prayers and devotions are held.
-While Myanmar boys are novitiated in the Shinbyu ceremony,
the girls also have an important ceremony in which their ear
lobes are pierced so they can wear ear-rings when they come of
age.
Unlike the novitiation ceremony, this is more a social than

religious even, and Myanmar women have traditionally worn
ear-rings as ornaments as well as status symbols. The ear-rings
can be made of silver or gold, with or without gemstones set in
them, or they can be of modern design, and are interchangeable
to match the dress and to suit the occasion.
This ceremony of young girls usually coincides with the boys'
novitiation rather than being held on its own. The girl, usually a
sister of the novices-to-be, can have her ears pierced on her own
or in a group depending on the situation. On the day of the
novitiation ceremony, the girl's ritual is held before the
novitiation so they can then join the procession.
Ear lobes were pierced, rather painfully, with a spike in the
olden days, but now piercing guns are mostly used.
Mra, U. Win. Social Roles & Gender Stereotypes. 1.
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/GS07.social-roles.pdf.
-Women also have some roles in Buddhism.
-Women’s equality ultimately starts in homes and communities,
with the values that are transmitted to children by their parents,
teachers and community leaders, and perpetuated by prevailing
social and cultural systems
- Burmese Buddhism & Tradition A male dog is higher in status
than a woman. - Traditional Burmese saying
- All women must be reincarnated as men before they are
eligible to become Buddhas. Buddhist practice also restricts
women from participating in some ceremonies and entering
certain parts of temples. They cannot apply gold leaf to Buddha
statues or
perform a number of other common offerings, and signs in
temples throughout Burma demarcate areas where women are
not allowed to enter
- In Burma women’s clothes cannot be dried above men’s

clothes, and women’s underwear cannot be hung outside to dry.
In my opinion, a piece of cloth is just a piece of cloth. We
should not differentiate between men’s and women’s clothes.
Women’s clothes are considered dirty just because we
menstruate.
- For example, when we are offering something to the monks,
they will ask, “Where is your husband?” They want to accept
the donation from the husbands as the procedure is supposed to
be undertaken by the head of the house. We also can’t light
candles before a Buddha image as people think this is a man’s
duty… I think those superstitions are followed blindly by local
people, but are not the real teachings of the religion…. Even
between nuns and monks there is gender discrimination. A nun
cannot sit at the same level as a monk. In my opinion both nuns
and monks are following the ascetic life and they renounce their
lives in the same way. As far as I know the Buddha never taught
such discriminations between men and women. I think that
people themselves have modified the religion. I accept the
ethical teaching of the Buddha such as the five precepts. What I
am opposing is discrimination in every social sphere by people.
Innes, Emma. "The 'giraffe Women' of Eastern Burma Who
Wear Brass Rings around Their Necks as a Sign of Beauty."
Mail Online. April 21, 2014. The 'giraffe women' of eastern
Burma who wear brass rings around their necks as a sign of
beauty
· The Kayan women wear coils around their necks to make them
look longer
· Their necks are not actually stretched - the weight of the brass
pushes down the muscles around their collarbones and
compresses their ribs
· This makes their necks look longer than they actually are
· It is not known why the women originally started wearing the
neck rings

· Now they do so as it is considered beautiful and to preserve
the tradition
· A full set of the neck rings can weigh as much as 10 kilos
· However, when asked, most of the women will now say they
wear them to preserve their cultural identities.
· Kayan women are usually now given a choice as to whether or
not they want to wear the neck rings.
· Most of those who still do, do so because they see them as
beautiful or because they want to preserve the tradition.
· It is also likely that some wear them because they attract
tourists who bring vital revenue to the community.
-The origin of the tradition mystifies even the Kayans. An
ancient legend claims rings protected villagers from tiger
attacks, since the cats attack victims at the neck.
-Another theory said the rings helped ward off men from rival
tribes by lessening the women’s beauty. Today, people believe
the opposite– the longer their neck, the more beautiful the
woman—and Kayans wear the golden coils as an accessory.
Hafiz, Yasmin. "The Fascinating World of Kumari's." April 25,
2014.
-About the girl who gets treated like a queen, (kumari)
-children who are selected, they live in temples, are carried in
chariots during festivals and are worshipped by thousands of
Hindus and Buddhists. They retire upon puberty.
- The Royal Kumari is the most respected, though more are
chosen from different clans.
-The Royal Kumari's feet never touch the ground during her
tenure, whenever she leaves the palace, she is carried in a
golden palanquin. Kumari is always dressed in red, and has a
symbolic "fire eye" painted on her forehead.

- Kumari, meaning virgin in Nepalese- are young pre-pubescent
girls and are considered by devotees to be incarnations of a
Hindu goddess. Selected as toddlers, living goddesses usually
keep their positions until they reach puberty.
- Some activists criticize the custom as a form of child
labor which hinders the freedom and education of kumaris- In
2008, Nepal's Supreme Court overruled a petition against the
practice due to its cultural and religious significance.
-the challenges she faced after her retirement, during the
difficult transition from goddess to mortal. "It was a
challenging transition," she said. I couldn't even walk properly
because I had been carried all the time. The outside world was a
complete stranger to me."
- The Kumari Devi is a young girl who is prepubescent,
considered to be a real goddess, worshipped and revered, the
practice going back hundreds of years into Nepali culture.
- Caretakers and devotees of the Kumari/ living Goddess- carry
her on a palanquin to the Ghode Jatra festival, an annual horse-
racing festival, in Katmandu, Nepal. “According to legend, the
festival is held to celebrate the victory over a demon named
Tundi who lived in the area known as Tundikhel and is believed
that the clamor of horses' hooves on Ghode Jatra keeps the
demon's sprit away.”
-She must meet 32 strict physical requirements ranging from the
color of her eyes to the sound of her voice. Her horoscope must
also be appropriate as well. Although there are many Kumaris in
Nepal, the Kathmandu goddess is the most important and only
makes rare public appearances. The Kumari's reign ends with
her first period, after that she reverts back to the status of a
normal mortal.
- Kumari, Nepal's Living Goddess- Nepal's supreme court has
ordered the government to investigate possible children's rights
violations in a local tradition of worshipping a virgin girl as a
living goddess on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006. The Living Goddess,
worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists, is selected from a
group of small girls, usually aged 3 or 4, who have gone

through several tests, including spending a night among the
heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes.
-belief in the kumari – they give importance to this kumari who
has strength to fulfill some wishes of the village.
-one kumari at a time, powers such as being supreme
-the president bows in front of her, she feels supreme, they
believe and trust this power.
Sein, Daw Mya. "The Women Of Burma." February 1958.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1958/02/the-
women-of-burma/306822/.
-In most of Asia women have had to fight for equality with men
primarily on three matters: marriage, divorce, and inheritance.
In Burma we have been singularly fortunate in possessing this
equality even before we knew it was a problem. The "arranged
marriage," customary in so large a part of Asia, is still to be
found in some segments of our society, but with this essential
distinction: that the parents cannot choose a partner for their
daughter without offering her the right of refusal.
Most of our young people now marry for love — or at least
choose their own partners — and a girl can insist that her
parents accept her betrothal to the man she prefers.
Even after her marriage a girl can decide, if she wants, to
remain in her own family for a while. The marriage itself
continues this principle of independence and equality. The
wedding is not a religious ceremony but a civil contract — in
fact no ceremony is necessary at all; a man and woman can
simply make known their decision to "eat and live together."
Rustad, Harley. Nepalese Menstruation Tradition Dies Hard.
April 30, 2013.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/nepalese-
menstruation-tradition-dies-hard/article11644844/.

Today the rituals still continue, but are killing many,
-Sharmila Bhul was 15 when she died alone and isolated in an
unventilated and windowless room
-Like tens of thousands of girls and women across Nepal’s
mountainous western districts, Sharmila was
practising chaupadi – a Hindu tradition in which menstruating
women and girls are isolated because they are deemed unclean.
-Girls grow up in fear of retribution if they fail to follow their
monthly restrictions – animal attacks, crop failures and water
shortages are commonly blamed on women not rigidly
following chaupadi.
-They are forced to sleep in a goth – a mud-walled hut about
twice the size of a standard doghouse – or in caves, cowsheds or
outbuildings far from their homes.
-Similarly, after giving birth, women must remain isolated with
their newborn for up to 10 days – until they are considered what
their society calls “clean.”
-Some isolated efforts are being made to break the practice,
most in response to young girls like Sharmila dying or being
assaulted while they were obliged to practise chaupadi.
-Women have been practising chaupadi in Nepal for centuries.
Commonly thought to have originated as a way to give women
rest during their menstruation and a break from hard labour,
today the isolation and restrictions remain even though women
are required to work in the fields.
-“Chaupadi is part of life,” said Dwarika Rawal, 26, a

community health worker in Bhageshwar who practised it as a
young girl. “But now when I remember it, it makes me really
angry because now I know that nothing will happen.”
-The chapaudi-free-zone effort has at least made the practice
less onerous, according to Ms. Rawal. “Now in my district, girls
sleep in a small room attached to the house, [they] can drink
milk and everybody goes to school,” she said. “The intensity
has been reduced. It’s a milder form now.”
-The Nepal Supreme Court banned chaupadi in 2005. But
government regulation does not stretch to the country’s western
districts. Around 90 per cent of women in one district, Achham,
continue the practice, according to community health workers at
Bayalpata Hospital in Sanfebagar.
-Women and girls,have died from health problems due to
isolation and exposure or from smoke inhalation.
-Women and their infants have died from snakebites and wild-
animal attacks.
-Girls have been raped because men knew when they were
menstruating and would be alone and isolated in a goth.
-Most commonly, women are restricted from entering or coming
near the house for fear they will bring misfortune on the family.
Drinking milk is not allowed out of a belief the cow will stop
producing.
-Women are not allowed to enter temples during this time for
fear of aggravating the gods and goddesses.

-The word chaupadi – chau meaning menstruation
and padi meaning women – is even used as an insult, directed at
both men and women, to imply they are dirty.
-While practising chaupadi, many girls don’t attend school –
because they are restricted from interacting with men and boys,
because there is a temple at the school or because they don’t
have sanitary pads and fear embarrassment – and end up missing
up to a week of school every month.
-father’s views---Mr. Bhul said Sharmila slept isolated from her
family in a designated room in the corner of an outbuilding and
was not allowed to enter or come near the main house. “It is
impure if the daughter sleeps in the house,” he said. “The
system will be disturbed and will ultimately affect the house
and her future house.”
Only on her third menstrual cycle, Sharmila had lit a small fire
in the corner of the room to keep warm in the December cold
and to continue reading in the dark. She died with her school
books beside her.
No medical examination was performed. Sharmila’s body was
cremated the day she died. Her parents said they don’t know
how their daughter died.
“It was planned to happen, so it happened,” Mr. Bhul said. “It
was her fate – to live for 15 years.”
-For the Bhul family, which has five other daughters and a baby
on the way,chaupadi is now a thing of the past. It only takes one
look at Sharmila’s picture to remind them.
“If she wasn’t in the shed but in the house and had a health
problem, we could have noticed and helped her and treated her,”
Mr. Bhul said. “But … no one was there to listen.”
-The day Sharmila died, hundreds of people from her school and
neighbouring villages filled the dusty terraces around her home
to pay their respects. It was the first time her parents heard
people talking about stopping chaupadi. Many women, they

said, went home and tore down their family’s goth.
Extra:
Pennington, Eileen. "Asia Foundation." New Opportunities for
the Women of Burma. September 26, 2012.
http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2012/09/26/new-opportunities-
for-the-women-of-burma/.
-There are a number of prominent women in leadership roles.
-The majority of doctors, nurses, and teachers are female,
offering powerful role models for girls and young women as
they consider a professional future and potentially increasing
the currently low female labor force participation rate.
-However, despite Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s prominence as the
leader of the democratic opposition and a newly-elected member
of parliament, women are seriously under-represented in the
parliament (well under 5 percent), as well as in management
positions in the business world.
-There are successful women entrepreneurs in the business
sector, and women are working in so-called “non-traditional”
sectors such as construction, but women are commonly paid a
lower wage than their male counterparts, even for equal work.
Meanwhile, women continue to be the targets of human rights
abuses, including human trafficking and sexual violence,
particularly in conflict-affected areas. Among the many
challenges Burma will face moving forward is ensuring that
women from across the political, geographical, and ethnic
spectrums have robust roles to play in shaping the country’s
future and ensuring that the benefits of reform accrue to
everyone. I came away with the general sense that women are
eager to take up the challenge

How Buddhism Shapes Gender Politics in Nepal

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