bhikṣuṇī

(Sanskrit; Pāli, bhikkhunī). A female member of the Buddhist Saṃgha, usually translated as ‘nun’, being a religious professional who has abandoned worldly life to pursue the Buddhist ideal of nirvāṇa. The Buddha initially resisted the formation of an order of bhikṣunīs, fearing distraction and moral disorder. This was however introduced at the insistence of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī, the Buddha's stepmother, with the support of Ānanda, one of the Buddha's chief disciples well known for his championship of the cause of women. Although the transmission lineage of Theravādin bhikṣunīs died out in 456 ce, that of Mahāyāna bhikṣunīs has been preserved through the Dharmagupta Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya, which has continued as a living lineage in China and Taiwan.

The career of the nun is closely modelled on that of the monk. However, before being accepted for ordination, girls aged under 20 and married women under the age of 12 are subjected to a probationary period which lasts for two years. During that time the female probationer (śikṣamāṇā) must observe six rules which correspond to the first six precepts. At the time of her ordination the future nun supplied with the necessary requisites (a begging-bowl and the fivefold robe) presents herself, with her preceptress (upādhāyikā) and instructress (ācāriṇī), first before the assembly of nuns and then before that of monks, and receives ordination from this twofold assembly. Eight strict canonical provisions place the nun in complete dependence on the monks. These include that a nun cannot go into retreat where there is no monk; every fortnight she must go to the community of monks and receive instruction, but she herself can neither instruct a monk nor admonish him; the ceremonies of ordination, of the end of the rainy season retreat, and confession (pāpa-deśanā) must be repeated before the community of monks. The collection of the detailed regulations for the conduct of the fully ordained nun and monk is called the Prātimokṣa. The discipline to which the nun is subjected is often thought to be stricter than that of the monks. Her regulations consist in principle of 500 articles, double those of the monks, but in practice their number vary between 290 and 355 depending upon the school. Moreover, many of the additional rules concern such items as female garments. More probably, a separate set of female rules is later and therefore incorporates material already given in the exegesis of the rules for monks.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)