Film About the Ordination of Women Within Buddhism

You may remember a story that we posted back in January 2011 entitled "Bhikkhuni: Revival of the Women's Order", a documentary film which saught to explore the issue of female ordination in Buddhism, and shed some light on the injustices which were, and are, occurring within the tradition."

Filmmaker Wiriya Sati has announced the online release of "The Buddha’s Forgotten Nuns", as the film is now called. Ten years in the making, the documentary explores the attempts to revive the order of bhikkhunis, or fully ordained nuns, created by Shakyamuni Buddha more than 2,500 years ago. Asking two questions — “Is Buddhism a religious movement based on equality? Or is it rooted in a male-dominated culture found in most other world religions?” — Sati travels throughout Asia and the West, discovering both intractable conservatism and those intent on pushing beyond cultural barriers. The Buddha’s Forgotten Nuns is being made available to stream and download at Vimeo on Demand.


The Buddha's Forgotten Nuns from Bhikkhuni Documentary on Vimeo.