Centenary of the dasasilmatas in Sri Lanka.

The Order of Dasasilmata Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka will be 100 years old in May 2005. Therefore the DSM nuns will be celebrating the event with a wide programme of activities by this time. The President of the national Council of the DSM Sister Dhamma Nanda has written to the newspapers giving their programme of centenary celebrations.

As is well known the Dasasilmata Order was founded in 1905 under the British rule by Sister Sudharmachari. In lay-life she was s socialite spinster whose name was Catherene de Alwis. As the name implies she had been a Christian. Her father had been a Buddhist who became a Christian for purposes of marriage and to get the plums of office reserved for Christians under the Colonial government. However, Catherene, when she came to an understanding age, gave up Christianity and became a Buddhist after studying Buddhist scriptures. Then she decided to become a Buddhist nun and dedicate her life to serving the spiritual needs of Buddhist women. Monks at that time were not willing to welcome women even as junior nuns-administering the ten precepts.

She had to go to Burma in the company of Burmese pilgrims who had come to Sri Lanka on a pilgrimage. There were some Burmese nuns in that group who invited her to their country for ordination and training. In Burma, she was ordained and trained under Daw Nichari, an eminent Buddhist nun. After 11 years of study and training she return to Sri Lanka. Buddhist leaders welcomed and received her. Lady Edith Blake, the British Governor's wife, who was a feminist espousing women's cause befriended and helped her. She persuaded the Governor to release a crown land at Kotukelle, Kandy for a nunnery. A society of Buddhist patrons built a nunnery for her. It is now occupied and run by her pupillary successors. The dasasilmata movement spread far and wide throughout the land. Her pupillary descendants now comprise 2500 dasasilmata nuns in Sri Lanka.

For nearly 50 years they received no state support or recognition. They were supported by Buddhist devotees both men and women. Branch nunneries with influential supporters came up at Biyagama, Madiwela, Anuradhapura and other towns. After some 50 years the Government of independent Lanka came to recognize and help the dasasilmatas. The Buddha Sasana Ministry held a count and issued them identity cards. The ministry helped them to organize district level DSM societies. It assisted DSM to get admitted to Monastic Colleges and follow classes conducted for monks to obtain higher education in Buddhism. This nuns were admitted to education. In 1996 DSM nuns were admitted to the Pali and Buddhist university for higher studies in Buddhism along with monks and lay scholars.

DSM Societies started to function with state recognition and support at District level. They received training in preaching Dhamma sermons and social services like visiting hospitals to provide necessities to poor patients and give them spiritual help by sermons and sutra-chanting. They were trained to visit homes for the elders, orphanages and distribute medical comforts and other needs. They were given training to conduct and run Sunday Dhamma schools and Montesori schools. The Dept. of Women's Affairs assisted them to conduct workshops. They were helped to organize the annual procession to commemorate and honor Theri Sanghamitta who introduced the Bhikkhuni Order to Lanka during the Anuradhapura period. On the full moon-day of December it has been the custom among Sinhalese Buddhists to hold commemorative meetings and procession to honour Sanghamitta Theri who introduced the Bhikkhuni Order some 300 years before the Christian era. Her statue is carried in procession called Sanghamitta Perahera. Women devotees led by dasasil matas play a promient part in these processions. They are held in nearly all the important towns.

Before Sri Lanka gained independence nearly all the Buddhist leaders who after independence became Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers were supporters of the Vihara Maha Devi Nunnery close to Colombo. Mr D.S. Senanayake and J.R. Jayawardena who became the first prime Minister and first President of independent Lanka were active supporters. After taking over the Government they handed over the society to the supporters to take care of the nunnery. Mr Jayawardena in the preindependent days supported a promising nun, Sister Sudhamma to pursue higher education and obtain her B.A. in London. Later she became the Sister Superior of the Nunnery. She preached dhamma sermons over the state radio. But the government that came after President Jayawardena are playing second fiddle to the reactionary Maha Nayaka triumvirate, and do not allow nuns to preach over the state radio or television. Even the membership of Buddhist nuns in the Advisory council to the Buddha Sasana Ministry has been suppressed. Only single lady doctor of medicine has been appointed to represent Buddhist women, i.e. Bhikkhunis, Dasasilmata nuns and laywomen. She is playing second fiddle to the obscurantist monks and has told the Sakyadhita local President, "No bhikkhunis, we recognize only dasasilmatas". And ironically these are happening when a Buddhist lady is now the President of Sri Lanka. Catherene de Alwis, the founder of the DSM order was a relative of her grandfather, Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranayake. When women are at the helm of the Government we should expect to find women's movements in the secular and religious spheres to gain spectacular advances. But that has not been so here.

President Jayawardena sent a Buddhist delegation to China to study the bhikkhuni Order there and reported on the feasibility of reviving the bhikkhuni Order as recommended by Ven. Pandit Narawela Dhammaratana after his visit to China in leading a delegation to a Peace conference. The recommendations of the delegation went into abeyance due to terrorist uprisings in the North and South which de-established the Government and brought anarchy. A private member's motion in Parliament to revive the Bhikkhuni Order was decried by traditional conservatives raising the Mahayana bogey.

Mr Jayawardena retired and handed over the presidency to Mr Ranasingha Premadasa. He was a commoner who rose to that position by hard work, versatility and popularity. Under him the DSM nuns received favors and recognition. He offered the Magistrate's bungalow at Anuradhapura and its assets to DSM Vajira for a nunnery. It was named Sanghamit taramaya and is occupied now by Sr. Vajira's pupils after her recent death. Sr. Vajira was ordained a bhikkhuni at the Bodh Gaya international ordination under the auspices of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist mission from Taiwan. Before President Premadasa could complete his programme of work to uplift the country, including the revival of the bhikkhuni Sasana he was assassinated by a suicide bomber of the Tamil terrorist movement for a separate state.

As a result patronage and support for the DSM nuns received a set back under his successors. However, the present President, Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga under pressure from the All Ceylon Buddhist congress appointed a commision to go into the question of Sasana reforms. The idea was to eliminate the corruption and apostasies that have bedevilled the Buddha Sasana under 450 years of Christian rule by Portuguese, Dutch and English colonial powers. Now the report of the findings with its recommendations to purify the Sasana and set it on an even keel are out. The Buddha Sasana ministry has promised to implement its recommendations. The government is in honor bound to implement the Sasana reforms recommended. These include the improvements to the education, training and facilities to the DSM nuns in Sri Lanka who are the vestiges and representatives of the bhikkhunis of old.

On Dec. 26, 2004 the Tsunami has killed 30,240 people, 3,858 are missing, 15,688 are injured, 853,780 homes have been destroyed. We lost 380 Buddhist temples with only one monk dead. All elephants escaped to higher ground, only one monk reported dead.

So it is likely that Sasana reforms might be delayed until the country settled down to normalcy.

"Symbol is an indication
Pointing to reality
Beyond the symbol itself."