Asia | Tibet | Religion

Tibetan Buddhist nuns take up feminism and seek equal status with monks

Change is in the air at world’s biggest Tibetan Buddhist academy, in China’s Sichuan province, as nuns stand up for themselves and for Tibetan women as a whole. Monks appear split on their demands Religiously devoted and with a shaved head and flowing burgundy robes, Xinde Shijiamouni has all the trappings of a Tibetan Buddhist monk. But her serenity is troubled because, as a nun, she cannot reach the same clerical status as a man. In the harsh terrain and relative isolation of western China, Tibetan culture has long been patriarchal. Now more than 100 nuns

Asia | Tibet | Society

Unparalleled Changes for Tibetan Women

Source: WomenofChina

"Over the past more than half a century, women in Tibet have enjoyed higher status from once being seen as a jinx to becoming respected individuals. They used to work in cowsheds but now they can enter temples," Vice-President of the Tibet Autonomous Region's Women Federation Zhang Lirong said on September 2 in the capital city of Lhasa. According to official statistics, there are about 15 million women in Tibet, making up 49.1 percent of its total population. 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan women have enjoyed an overall impro

Asia | Tibet | History

Tibetan Women’s Human Rights Situation after 50 Years

Source: WomenofChina

The United States published the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 in June of this year, saying that "there were no formal restrictions on women's participation in the political system, and women held many lower-level government positions. Female cadres in the TAR [southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region] accounted for more than 41 percent of the TAR's total cadres." What is the current situation of women in Tibet then? Let us look at the statistics from the Chinese side. Since the democratic reform was conducted in Tibet in 1959, a large number of Tibetan women have held