Gender and the Greening of Buddhism: Exploring Scope for a Buddhist Ecofeminism in an Ultramodern Age
Issue: Vol 11 No. 4 (2017) Religion, Science and the Future
Journal: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.32469
Abstract:
Despite its popularity and appeal for many, ecofeminism has been criticized for essentializing and romanticizing women’s roles as close to nature, thereby reproducing colonialist and biologically determinist discourses that contribute to discrimination. In response there have been attempts to defend ecofeminism, arguing that such critiques are hyperbolic and that we need ecofeminism more than ever (Philips and Rumens 2016). In a climate of renewed interest in ecofeminism, I ask why is it that some faith traditions are represented to a far greater extent in ecofeminist literature than others? I pick up on this discrepancy within ecofeminism’s engagement between different religions through examining Buddhist responses to gender and ecology. In the article I adopt a theory of ultramodern Buddhism, developed by Halafoff and Rajkobal (2015), to understand Buddhism in the contemporary era. Three main research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent has ‘green Buddhism’ been gendered?; (2) why has there has been virtually no attempt to bring together feminist analysis with responses to Buddhism and environmentalism? Why have they been approached separately?; and (3) in what ways are Buddhist women (and men) combining gender analysis and environmentalism in practice in reference to or outside the framework of ecofeminism? To better understand why a Buddhist ecofeminism has not been named and claimed by Buddhists in either the West or Asia, there is a need for local-level empirical studies that examine subjective understandings of relationships between gender and environmentalism in the lives of ultramodern Buddhist practitioners rather than assuming a standard ecofeminist position as the primary reference point.
Author: Emma Tomalin
References :
Adams, C.J. (ed.). 1993. Ecofeminism and the Sacred (London and New York: Continuum International).
Badiner, A.H. (ed.). 1990. Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology (Berkeley: Parallax Press).
Batchelor, M., and K. Brown. 1992. Buddhism and Ecology (London: Cassell).
Beckford J.A. 1990. ‘The Sociology of Religion and Social Problems’, Sociological Analysis 51.1: 1-14. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3711337.
Bhalla, Nita. 2016. ‘“Kung Fu” Nuns Bike Himalayas to Oppose Human Trafficking’, Reuters, 16 September. Online: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-trafficking-nuns/kung-fu-nuns-bike-himalayas-to-oppose-human-trafficking-idUSKCN11M084.
Carlassare, E. 1994. ‘Essentialism in Ecofeminist Discourse’, in C. Merchant (ed.), Ecology: Key Concepts in Critical Theory (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press): 220-34.
Cho, Eun-su. 2013. ‘From Ascetic to Activist: Jiyul Sunim’s Korean Buddhist Eco-Movement’, in Carmen Meinert (ed.), Nature, Environment and Culture in East Asia (Leiden: Brill): 259-80.
Cooper, D.E., and S.P. James. 2005: Buddhism, Virtue and the Environment (Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing).
Crowley, E. 1991. ‘Third World Women and the Inadequacies of Western Feminism’, Development Review, 28 October. Online: http://www.globalresearch.ca/third-world-women-and-the-inadequacies-of-western-feminism/5372515.
Deicke, Carla. 1990. ‘Women and Ecocentricity’, in Badiner 1990: 165-68.
Evans, Robert. 2012. ‘Kung Fu Nuns Teach Cosmic Energy to CERN Scientists’, Reuters, 16 November. Online: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-cern-nuns/kung-fu-nuns-teach-cosmic-energy-to-cern-scientists-idUSBRE8AF10A20121116.
Gaard, G. 2011. ‘Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism’, Feminist Formations 23.2: 26-53. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2011.0017.
Grosnick, William Henry. 1994. ‘The Buddhahood of the Grasses and the Trees: Ecological Sensitivity or Scriptural Misunderstanding’, in Michael Barnes (ed.), An Ecology of the Spirit: Religious Reflection and Environmental Consciousness (Lanham, MD: University Press of America): 197-208.
Gross, R.M. 1995. ‘Buddhist Resources for Issues of Population, Consumption, and the Environment’, in H. Coward (ed.), Population, Consumption and the Environment (Albany: State University of New York Press): 155-72.
Gross, R.M. 1997. ‘Personal Transformation and the Earth Charter’, in Amy Morgante (ed.), Buddhist Perspectives on the Earth Charter (Cambridge, MA: Boston Research Center for the 21st Century): 53-58.
Gross, R.M. 2000. ‘Toward a Buddhist Ecological Vision’, in Harold Coward and Daniel C. Maguire (eds.), Visions of a NewEarth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption, and the Environment (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press): 147-60.
Gross, R.M. 2003. ‘Toward a Buddhist Environmental Ethic’, in Richard G. Foltz (ed.), Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment: A Global Anthology (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth): 163-71.
Gross, R.M. 2011. ‘Buddhism and Ecofeminism: Untangling the Threads of Buddhist Ecology and Western Thought’, Journal for the Study of Religion 24.2: 17-32.
Halafoff, A., and P. Rajkobal. 2015. ‘Sakyadhita International: Gender Equity in Ultramodern Buddhism’, Feminist Theology 23.2: 111-27. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0966735014555628.
Halifax, Joan. 1990. ‘The Third Body: Buddhism, Shamanism, and Deep Ecology’, in Badiner 1990: 20-38.
Harris, I. 1991. ‘How Environmentalist is Buddhism?’, Religion 21: 101-14. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(91)90058-X.
Harris, I. 1994. ‘Getting to Grips with Buddhist Environmentalism: A Provisional Typology’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2: 173-90.
Harris, I. 1995. ‘Buddhist Environmental Ethics and Detraditionalization: The Case of EcoBuddhism’, Religion 25.3: 199-211. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.1995.0019.
Harris, I. 2000. ‘Buddhism and Ecology’, in Damien Keown (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (London: Curzon Press): 113-36.
Hayward, Jeremy. 1990. ‘Ecology and the Experience of Sacredness’, in Badiner 1990: 64-74.
Jun, Hyun-Shik. 2014. ‘Tonghak Ecofeminist Epistemology’, Theology Today 71.3: 310–22.
Kaza, Stephanie. 1993. ‘Acting with Compassion: Buddhism, Feminism, and the Environmental Crisis’, in Adams 1993: 50-69.
Kaza, Stephanie. 2002. ‘Green Buddhism’, in C.N. Matthews, M.E. Tucker, and P. Hefner (eds.), When Worlds Converge: What Science and Religion Tell Us About the Story of the Universe and Our Place in It (Chicago: Open Court): 293-309.
Keown, D. 2007. ‘Buddhism and Ecology: A Virtue Ethics Approach’, Contemporary Buddhism 8.2: 97-112. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14639940701636083.
Kim, Jeong-Hee. 2005. ‘Bio-Feminist Ethics Found in the Lives of Buddhist Women: A Little Emancipation at a Time’, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 11.3: 73-91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2005.11665994.
Kim, Jeong-Hee. 2008. ‘Buddhism, Shamanism, and Women in Korean History’, in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Buddhist Women in a Global Multi-cultural Community (Malaysia: Sukhi Hotu Dhamma Publications): 108-17.
Lakshmi, Rama. 2015. ‘How Kathmandu’s “Kung Fu Nuns” Sprang into Action after the Quake’, The Washington Post, 2 May. Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/how-kathmandus-kung-fu-nuns-sprung-into-action-after-the-quake/2015/05/02/40c17b46-a478-4d18-ba3e-c5a166f432df_story.html?utm_term=.920adf187a1a.
Leach, M. 2007. ‘Earth Mother Myths and Other Ecofeminist Fables: How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell’, Development and Change 38.1: 67-85. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00403.x.
Lopez, D. 2002. A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West (Boston: Beacon Press).
Macy, J. 2003. World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal (Berkeley: Parallex Press).
Macy, J., and C. Johnstone. 2012. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy (Novato, CA: New World Library).
McMahan, D.L. 2008. The Making of Buddhist Modernism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Mohanty, C.T. 1984. ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’, boundary 2 12/13.3-1: 333-58.
Mohanty, C.T. 2003. “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anticapitalist Struggles’, Signs 28.2: 499-535.
Mohanty, C.T. 2013. ‘Transnational Feminist Crossings: On Neoliberalism and Radical Critique’, Signs 38.4: 967-91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/669576.
Moore, H. 1988. Feminism and Anthropology (London: Polity Press).
Moore, N. 2016. ‘Eco/feminist Genealogies: Renewing Promised and New Possibilities’, in Philips and Rumens 2016: 19-37.
Narayan, U. 1997. Dislocating Cultures (London and New York: Routledge).
Page, T. 2007. ‘Has Ecofeminism Cornered the Market? Gender Analysis in the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 1.3: 293-319. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v1i3.293.
Philips, M., and N. Rumens (eds.). 2016. Contemporary Perspectives on Ecofeminism (London and New York: Routledge).
Pui-Lan, K. 2002. ‘Unbinding Our Feet: Saving Brown Women and Feminist Religious Discourse’, in Laura E. Donaldson and Kwok Pui-Lan (eds.), Postcolonialism, Feminism, and Religious Discourse (New York: Routledge): 62-81.
Robertson, R. 1995. ‘Glocalization: Time–Space and Homogeneity–Heterogeneity’, in M. Featherstone, S. Lash, and R. Robertson (eds.), Global Modernities (London: SAGE): 25-44. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250563.n2.
Ruether, R.R. 2005. Integrating Ecofeminism Globalization and World Religions (New York: Rowman & Littlefield).
Shiva, V. 1988. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (London: Zed Books).
Sponsel, L. 2012. Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger).
Stanley, John. n.d. ‘A Climate in Crisis’, Environment and Ecology. Online: http://environment-ecology.com/religion-and-ecology/343-a-climate-in-crisis.html.
Stanley, John, David R. Loy, and Gyurme Dorje (eds.). 2009. A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications).
Studgeon, N. 1997. Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory and Political Action (New York and London: Routledge).
Thanissara. 2015. Time to Stand Up: An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth—The Buddha’s Life and Message Through Feminine Eyes (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books).
Tomalin, E. 2006. ‘The Thai Bhikkhuni Movement and Women’s Empowerment’, Gender and Development 14.3: 385-97. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552070600980492.
Tomalin, E. 2007. ‘Religion, Gender and the Environment in Asia: Moving Beyond the Essentialisms of “Spiritual Ecofeminism”?’, in Bernadette P. Resurreccion and Rebecca Elmhirst (eds.), Gender and Natural Resource Management in Asia (London: Earthscan): 243-59.
Tomalin, E. 2013. Religions and Development (London and New York: Routledge).
Tomalin, E., C. Starkey, and A. Halafoff. 2015. ‘Cyber Sisters: Buddhist Women’s Online Activism and Practice’, in Daniel Enstedt, Göran Larsson, and Enzo Pace (eds.), Religion and Internet (Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, 6; Leiden: Brill): 11-33.
Trinlae, Bhikshuni L. 2015. ‘Is South Asia’s Buddhist Leader the Gyalwang Drukpa an Ecofeminist? Dialectical, Grounded Analysis of Eminent Feminist Theology Illuminates the Foundations for a Vajrayana Buddhist Ecofeminism’, International Journal of Dharma Studies 3.3: 1-14. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40613-014-0012-y.
Vasquez, M., and M. Marquardt. 2003. Globalizing the Sacred: Religion across the Americas (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press).
Warren, K. 1996. Ecological Feminist Philosophies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
Weil, Lise. 2015. ‘Listening to Natural Law: Interview with Ayya Santacitta’, Dark Matter: Women Witnessing, Issue 3 (December). Online: http://www.darkmatterwomenwitnessing.com/issues/Dec2015/articles/Interview-with-Ayya-Santacitta_Lise-Weil.html.
Willaime, J.-P. 2006. ‘Religion in Ultramodernity’, in J.A. Beckford and J. Walliss (eds.), Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates (Aldershot: Ashgate): 77-89.
Wilson, K. 2005. ‘Ecofeminism and First Nations Peoples in Canada: Linking Culture, Gender and Nature’, Gender, Place and Culture 12.3: 333-55.
Yi, Young Suk. 2009. ‘Gendered life and Saeng-Myung Feminism: The Localization of Ecofeminism in Korea’, in S. Bergmann and Yong-Bock Kim (eds.), Religion Ecology and Gender, East West Perspectives (Munster: Lit Verlag): 23-34.