Sister Khanti-Khema
Encyclopedia
Sister Khema,Samaneri is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-born novice Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

 Buddhist nun.

Her ordination on September 7, 2006 was a surprise for American Buddhism, not just because the ceremony was officiated by an American Maha Thera Buddhist Monk, but also because this was the first such ordination in America, where an American woman took the Samaneri
Samaneri
A samaneri is a novice Buddhist nun, who lives according to the ten precepts. Male novices are called samaneras. A woman is to be ordained, according to Theravada tradition, by both a monk and a nun, first as a samaneri. After a year or at the age of 20, she will be ordained as a full bhikkhuni....

 vows with an American monk presiding. Previously, if a woman wanted to do this she would have to go to a foreign monastery on American soil. But now there is an American monastery where women and men can be trained in an ordination program for a new lineage: Buddhist American Forest Tradition. This tradition follows the Sutta
Sutra
Sūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...

s closely, providing a Buddhist center that speaks English and offers a study campus to continue their work with sutta study and developing compassionate service projects.

The verification of sutta information through personal investigation using the practice described in the suttas continues today with the guidance of her teacher, Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi
Bhante Vimalaramsi
Bhante Vimalaramsi is an American Buddhist monk. He is the Abbot and founder of the Dhammasukha Meditation Center in Annapolis, Missouri, USA.-Biography:...

 Maha Thera who has just been appointed as the American representative for the World Buddhist Summit Conference. This is the first time the US will have representation at the World Buddhist Summit Conference, which Sister Khema attended to assist her teacher and to follow firsthand the progress of the development of women in Buddhism at Dhammasukha Meditation Center, Missouri.
Note: Sister Ayya Khema
Ayya Khema
Ayya Khema , a Buddhist teacher, was born as Ilse Kussel in Berlin, Germany, to Jewish parents. Khema escaped Nazis persecution during World War II. She eventually moved to the United States. After travelling in Asia she decided to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka in 1979...

is a different person than the above Sister Khema.

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