Thailand dais for Lakhisarai nunnery

Lakhisarai: The role of women in medieval Indian Buddhist institutions in context to the recently find of a nunnery at Jaynagar Lalipahari excavation at Lakisahrai was underlined by an Indian scholar in Thailand on Saturday.

Anil Kumar, head of department of ancient Indian history culture and archaeology, Visva-Bharati, who has been heading the excavation team here at Lalipahari presented the excavation reports of Lakhisarai and its findings in Thailand during his lecture at Buddhasavika Foundation, an internationally acclaimed institution at Nakhon Pathom. Dhammananda, the first Theravada Bhikkhuni in Thailand, had invited Anil.

Dhammananda, earlier a student of BA in philosophy in Santiniketan in 1962 and known as Chatsumarn Shatsena, is a well-known Buddhist scholar who has visited almost every part of India. “We are eager to know about your findings at Lakhisarai, particularly about the nunnery,” she wrote to Anil on July 9.

Anil told The Telegraph from Bangkok that he focused on the Lakhisarai nunnery which was recently dug out as a proof of involvement of women in Buddhism in medieval India for the first time.

Courtesy: The Telegraph