On Women in Buddhism

Interesting:

...The filmmaker added that nuns in Buddhism lived a life unconsciously weighed down by a melancholic irony.

'Many Tibetan Buddhists believe that one cannot attain enlightenment in the body of a woman; so why have these women dedicated their lives to this endeavour?' she asked.

'I hope what people will see is that even though the lives of the elder nuns have been difficult and not equitable to the lives of a monk, they embody completely the Buddhist principles of love and compassion,' she said.

Heather, who won laurels at the San Jose Short Film Festival earlier for her film 'Spoken', said she first stumbled upon the subject of women in Buddhism when she was doing the rounds of still photography exhibitions on Buddhism back home in the US.

'I noticed that at each exhibition there was never a photograph of a woman, yet most of the receptions for the shows were filled with women. I found this odd and, after more investigation, realised that the ideal of Buddhism is always represented by a man (monk),' she said.

Many in the US were not even aware that there were nuns within Buddhism, she added.

'This led me to want to make a film giving these women a voice - their own voice and not a Western interpretation of their experience,' Kessinger explained...