Translation of the book "Die Regeln für die buddhistische Nonnengemeinde im Vinaya Pitaka der Theravadin (Berlin, 1997) into English

My book "Die Regeln für die buddhistische Nonnengemeinde im Vinaya-Pitaka der Theravadin" ("The Rules for the Order of Buddhist Nuns in the Vinaya-Pitaka of the Theravadin") was published in 1997 in the prestigeous series "Monographien zur indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie" (Reimer Verlag, Berlin). At that time, the now rapidly growing monastic community of nuns in the Theravada tradition was still in its infancy and not in view of the academic community studying Buddhism. No one could foresee that the Theravada nuns' community would be revived. However, today there exists a significant number of communities of Theravada nuns in Asia, in Australia, in Europe, and in North America, which triggered a massive interest in academic work on the topic. Yet even in 2016, my 1997 book is still the only work that gives the text and translation of the rules for nuns, explains how the regulations have to be understood in their context, compares them with the regulations for monks, and discusses the opinions of the canonical commentaries as well as of the 5th century scholar-monk Buddhaghosa. However, since my book is published in German, many of the important findings laid out in my book are not adequately taken note of in the English academic literature on Theravada nuns, much of which is not based on primary sources but on secondary literature in English. The publication of the English translation ? including then also updated references to the diverse academic discussions that took place since then - would therefore contribute significantly to the academic discourse on this timely topic. The English translation of my book would also be of practical use to many of the Buddhist nuns and female novices. Many of the nuns are looking for guidance for their day-to-day behavior in academic works on Buddhist monastic law, such as my 1997 book, which explains Buddhist monastic law from the perspective of the early Buddhist law-givers.