Recent effort to teach Western science in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries has drawn interest both within and outside the quarters of these monasteries. This novel and historic move of bringing Western science in a traditional monastic community began around year 2000 at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite the novelty of this effort, the literature in science education about learners from non-Western communities suggests various "cognitive conflicts" experienced by these non-Western learners due to fundamental difference in the worldview of the two knowledge traditions. Hence, in this research focuses on how six Tibetan Buddhist monks were situating/reconciling the scientific concepts like the theory of evolution into their traditional Buddhist worldview. The monks who participated in this study were engaged in a further study science at a university in the U.S. for two years. Using case study approach, the participants were interviewed individually and in groups over the two-year period. The findings revealed that although the monks scored highly on their acceptance of evolution on the Measurement of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey, however in the follow-up individual and focus group interviews, certain conflicts as well as agreement between the theory of evolution and their Buddhist beliefs were revealed. The monks experienced conflicts over concepts within evolution such as common ancestry, human evolution, and origin of life, and in reconciling the Buddhist and scientific notion of life. The conflicts were analyzed using the theory of collateral learning and was found that the monks engaged in different kinds of collateral learning, which is the degree of interaction and resolution of conflicting schemas. The different collateral learning of the monks was correlated to the concepts within evolution and has no correlation to the monks’ years in secular school, science learning or their proficiency of English language. This study has indicted that the Tibetan Buddhist monks also experience certain cognitive conflict when situating Western scientific concepts into their Buddhist worldview as suggested by research of science learners from other non-Western societies. By explicating how the monks make sense of scientific theories like the theory of evolution as an exemplar, I hope to inform the current effort to establish science education in the monastery to develop curricula that would result in meaningful science teaching and learning, and also sensitive to needs and the cultural survival of the monastics.

The common monastic life for a Buddhist nun follows an almost 2500-year-old legal tradition which has it´s foundation in Buddhist monastic law codes, vinaya. The rules to live by is specified in the core text pratimoksha. With the spread of the Buddhist samgha to new cultural settings and facing modernity, the monastic code has been challenged. The Vietnamese Buddhist munk and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, published a new revised version of pratimoksha in 2004. This revised monastic code is in use in Buddhist centra in Europe today. This essay sees the monastic law codes as an expression of a monastic ideal formed by cultural context. Textual analysis together with comparative content analysis is used to examine the precepts for Buddhist nuns and describe the role model for monastic life today. The new formulation of the precepts shows the challenge of the samgha in modern times. Hanh’s revised pratimoksha is understood in comparison with the canonical dharmaguptakavinaya. Monastic code is corresponding to its environment and this essay shows how change has been done as a response to new cultural and contextual settings. The conclusion reached paints a picture of an ideal Buddhistic nun in the twenty-first century.

The musical culture of the female monastic institution called La Concezione, or il monastero nuovo, reflected the political, social and devotional objectives of the Medici court. In 1562, at the close of the Council of Trent, the convent was founded through the last testament of Grand Duchess Eleonora de Toledo de'Medici with the support of Grand Duke Cosimo I's personal knighthood-- the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano. Glorified as a "reformed" institution reflecting the piety of Florence and the rectitude of the Medici family, the public image of the convent required strict adherence to Catholic Reformation ideals of female virtue. Musically, the women of the convent restricted their public performance to monophonic chant. The only universally approved music for monastics, chant was thought to be the most appropriate form of public musical devotion for the virginal daughters of the court. In private, the patrician women perhaps enjoyed the popular polyphonic music that the vast resources of their families, the Florentine court, and their superiors, afforded them. The public image of perfection was of the utmost importance to the Medici; polyphonic performance was only allowed in the most private spaces of the cloister--away from the public eyes and ears. A counter-example to recent scholarship, this view of female monastic music is in contrast to studies that have highlighted examples of wealthy convents that actively sought opportunities for polyphonic performance as part of their public character. This dissertation relies on various extant archival documents of the convent, the Order of Santo Stefano and the Medici family in an examination of the role that music played in both the public and private spheres of the most elite convent of early modern Florence. / text

This thesis develops a Theoretical framework to be applied to future research concerning medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns and their involvements with Buddhist material culture. My efforts at theory production serve as a preliminary attempt at laying a comprehensive Theoretical foundation for a fresh area of inquiry, namely merging the respective studies of Japanese Buddhist nuns with Buddhist material culture. This marks a promising area of study as a corrective to the enduring focus placed upon men by Religious Studies (RS) scholars. Indeed, RS has historically been, and largely continues to be, a field dominated by men. As such, RS research has concentrated upon the male population, both lay and monastic, and has only recently started shifting toward the question of where women were and what they were doing. Additionally, the study of Buddhist material culture is itself a relatively new field. Consequently, there are currently very few English publications exploring women’s involvement with this important aspect of Buddhism. As a means of contextualizing the Theoretical framework ultimately proposed, I first examine the states of the Buddhist Studies subfields of Buddhist nuns and of Buddhist material culture. I subsequently explore the states of theory production within RS and Medieval Japanese Buddhist Studies (MJBS), contending that a distinctive mode of theory (macro ‘capital-T’ Theoretical frameworks and micro ‘lowercase-t’ theoretical models, respectively) is found within each discipline. While I propose only a RS style macro Theoretical framework, I suggest that an ideal foundation for the study of nuns through the lens of material culture will take the form of a Theoretical complex comprised of both a Theoretical framework and a MJBS style theoretical model. Ultimately, I wish to begin the process of laying the groundwork for future research focusing on women and gender within the context of Buddhism and material culture. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This thesis develops a Theoretical framework to be used in future research about medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns and their involvements with Buddhist material culture (paintings, statues, relics, and so on). This is a preliminary attempt at laying a Theoretical foundation for this fresh area of inquiry. In this endeavour, I am trying to respond to the enduring focus placed upon men by Religious Studies (RS) scholars, as the field has been and largely continues to be dominated by men. Consequently, there are very few English publications exploring Buddhist nuns and material culture, an important aspect of Buddhism. I examine the states of the studies of these topics, and explore two types of theory production distinct to RS and Medieval Japanese Buddhist Studies respectively. Ultimately, I wish to begin the process of laying the groundwork for future research on women and gender within the context of Buddhism and material culture.