i) Introduction


This article is an attempt to trace the history of the beginnings of the Korean Bhikkuni Sangha. It is a difficult task. The low position of women in society and the 500 years of the persecution of Buddhism are probably responsible for the obliteration of most of the information that was recorded. Therefore, with the little that remains, an attempt at interpretation, often a little far-fetched, has been made. The resulting picture is, at best, vague but we can obtain some kind of an idea of the lives, status and activities of bhikkunis as well as some sense of the evolution of the Korean Bhikkuni Sangha throughout the long Buddhist history of Korea, from 372 CE to the present day.