Through the Yellow Gate: Ordination of Gender-Nonconforming People in the Buddhist Vinaya

[Vimala]

@Khemarato.bhikkhu

The Journal of Buddhist Ethics might be an especially good fit for this work, just saying.

Thanks for the tip. I had a look but …

Manuscripts should be submitted for consideration as Microsoft Word files …

So I don’t think that will work

[Vimala]

I have uploaded a new version and maybe Ven. @Akaliko can also change the version on Rainbodhi.

YellowGate.pdf (1.7 MB)

I have also uploaded it to Academia:

Through the Yellow Gate: Ordination of Gender-Nonconforming People in the...

@TheSynergist

Now I’m curious about the history of the PTS’ translation of Pandaka as “Eunuch.” Was this simply Horner’s choice? I cannot seem to find an entry for Pandaka in the 1921-1925 PTS pali dictionary by TW Rhys-Davids and William Stede. Were there any earlier attempts by English speakers to translate it?

Thank you for this question. I am not quite certain how the PTS dictionary was formed and maybe Ajahn @Brahmali or Bhante @Sujato can say a bit more about this. It is quite possible that the translation of the paṇḍaka comes from the Chinese. But as I pointed out, the terms paṇḍaka, 黃門 (‘yellow gate’) and eunuch denote something quite different. The only similarity between these terms is that all these three classes of men were emasculated (although in the case of the paṇḍaka this is only the case for one of the types). Both the paṇḍaka and the 黃門 only have meaning in the unique context in which these terms existed. They do not exist in our western society today and cannot be reduced to their emasculated body.