Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu! I guess the event mentioned in this is an outlier. That’s great news.
I think you misunderstood my post. I wasn’t criticizing Asian bhikkhunis or saying we don’t need them. I was criticizing this:
and saying that we can’t rely on those (usually) sexist institutions, or the monks who are in thrall to them, to further the bhikkhuni cause. As much as we owe the various (male) Ajahns, Bhantes, and Sayadaws for transmitting Dhamma to the West, and despite how inspiring or dear they are to us, most of them are totally useless when it comes to helping with this.
The fact that Buddhism has always had to recognize and follow the laws of the country in which it exists, coupled with the fact that Buddhism isn’t even recognized as a religion in some Western countries, might in fact be a blessing in disguise. As Ven. Vimala pointed out, some of the more progressive Western countries have laws that help enshrine the right of a woman to a bhikkhuni ordination, albeit rather indirectly. Since we don’t have any centralized monastic institutions whose judgments on monastic matters are backed by the law of the land, bhikkhunis (Asian or Western) will never have to fear having their nunnery taken away or being jailed for going on alms round. Although I didn’t express it, what I was thinking was that Asian bhikkhunis would be better off in the West than in Asia.
