Secara tradisional, untuk diterima menjadi bagian dari kehidupan biara Buddha, seseorang harus memenuhi sejumlah persyaratan, termasuk memiliki identitas seksual yang “jelas”.
Novice Buddhist monks during a mass ordination at Dhamagaya Temple in central Thailand in 2010.
AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong
Traditional ordination into a Buddhist monastic life requires meeting guidelines based on male and female genders.
The number of women religious leaders is growing, but the 2018-2019 National Congregations Study, which surveyed 5,300 U.S. religious communities, found that only 56.4% of these communities would allow a woman to “be head clergy person or primary religious leader.”
AP Photo/Young Kwak
Traditionally, Buddhism has been opposed to women taking on leadership roles. However, nuns in many Buddhist-majority countries are challenging the patriarchal rules.
A volunteer sets up beds in what would have been a field hospital in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Images of religious buildings being used to treat the sick shouldn’t come as surprise. The practice has a long tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages.
A volcano in Indonesia may be the location of a massive “mystery eruption” that has perplexed volcanologists for decades, according to a new study. The eruption occurred in 1257, and it could also be one…