Many scholars believe that before the mid-twentieth century, Buddhism in Taiwan took the form of householder practice called the vegetarian sect, or zhaijiao. It is often assumed that the arrival of the Chinese monastic sangha brought changes in the way Buddhist religiosity in Taiwan was expressed. Fingers are usually pointed at Mainland Chinese monks who migrated to Taiwan after 1949 and are blamed for “erasing” zhaijiao practice by establishing a Chinese monastic order in Taiwan. Seldom noticed is the role played by Buddhist women who, in the prevailing scholarly discourse, are generally perceived as passive recipients of change. Their voices are almost never heard in scholarly studies. Therefore this paper intends to bring attention to Buddhist women in Taiwan. Through the method of in-depth interviews, this paper will focus on one Buddhist woman who is the abbess of a temple that wasformerly zhaijiao but is now for bhikkhunîs. Through her life story, we get a glimpse of how Buddhist women can be agents of change in their own religiosity.
