Contents: Preface. Mahaprajapati's legacy: the Buddhist women's movement: an introduction/Karma Lekshe Tsomo. I. Buddhist women in Asian traditions: South Asian traditions: 1. The female in Buddhism/Elizabeth J. Harris. 2. Buddhist women in India and precolonial Sri Lanka/Lorna Dewaraja. 3. Restoring the order of nuns to the Theravadin tradition/Senarat Wijayasundara. East Asian traditions: 4. The red cord untied: Buddhist nuns in eighteenth-century China/Beata Grant. 5. Japanese Buddhist nuns: innovators for the sake of tradition/Paula K.R. Arai. 6. Can women achieve enlightenment? A critique of sexual transformation for enlightenment/Hae-ju Sunim (Ho-Ryeon Jeon). The Tibetan tradition: 7. Tibetan Buddhist women practitioners, past and present: a garland to delight those wishing inspiration/Janice D. Willis. 8. Pregnancy and childbirth in Tibetan culture/Sarah Pinto. 9. Change in consciousness: women's religious identity in Himalayan Buddhist cultures/Karma Lekshe Tsomo. II. Contemporary Buddhist women : Forging identity: 10. Conception and the entry of consciousness: when does a life begin?/Cait Collins. 11. East, west, women, and self/Anne C. Klein. 12. Appropriate treasure? Reflections on women, Buddhism, and cross-cultural exchange/Sara Shneiderman. Shaping new traditions: unity and diversity: 13. Comparing Buddhist and Christian women's experiences/Karma Lekshe Tsomo. 14. Aung San Suu Kyi: a woman of conscience in Burma/Theja Gunawardhana. 15. A model for laywomen in Buddhism: the western Buddhist order/Dharmacharini Sanghadevi. 16. Feminism, lay Buddhism, and the future of Buddhism/Rita M. Gross. Epilogue/Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Bibliography. Index