Servants of the Buddha: Winter in a Himalayan Convent

by Anna Grimshaw

Book by Grimshaw, Anna

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Anna Grimshaw was trained as an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge. She carried out her doctoral research with communities of Buddhist nuns in the Himalayas. For almost a decade, she worked as a public scholar outside the academy.

Reviews

[Sandra Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an ethnocentric view (which doesn't mean it's wrong)of how nuns support monks in this context by doing the labor so the monks can study for their higher purposes. It is not filled with criticism, but instead Grimshaw does a good job of articulating daily life and getting her point (and criticisms) across without outwardly stating them. I think it is a larger criticism of this relationship in Buddhism as a class issue too. It is common to have common folk believe that if they feed the monks, they have a symbiotic relationship. The monks are allowed the time to devote everything to spiritual studies and the common folk can devote all of their time to labor. It doesn't seem fair to Westerners (like Grimshaw) but it is interesting to look at from an anthropoligic point of view.