"Kim Gutschow has lived for three years among a group of nuns in the Indian Himalayas, collecting their stories and studying their lives. Her book offers the first comprehensive ethnography of Buddhist monastic culture from the perspective of nuns." "Gutschow depicts a gender hierarchy where monks direct and nuns serve in the very fields and houses blessed by monastic rites. Looking at historical social patterns of patronage as well as recent cultural shifts in feminism, globalism, and politics, she investigates the changing balance of power between monks and nuns. Most recently, nuns have begun to engage in everyday acts of resistance and subversion to contest the predominant power of monks." "A picture of the culture of female monasticism, the book also presents an account of the physical and mental rigors of upholding a Buddhist discipline of detachment. The exploitation of the beliefs and practices of these Buddhist nuns offers insight into the relationships between Buddhist men and women as well as the tension between individual religious devotion and secular society in South Asia today."--BOOK JACKET.