Her voice was low, but it was the only sound audible in the silent three-bed room. Usually, this is how Phoolmaya [name changed] has been spending her days since she arrived three weeks ago at the Nuns Welfare Foundation in Pharping on the outskirts of Kathmandu.[break]
But the 21-year-old nun doesn’t recollect how she ended in the nunnery. She still hasn’t recovered from the mental trauma that has blurred her reminiscence of what happened on the night of June 24.
In Sankhuwasabha district in eastern Nepal, the nun was gang-raped inside a passenger bus by five men, including the driver and the conductor of the bus, now all in police custody and waiting for trial.
While the accused have been arrested, the victim herself seems to have imprisoned her memories for she hasn’t even been able to release a statement for the trial.
“I don’t know anything,” Phoolmaya says in a low tone, fidgeting with her handkerchief. “I came to consciousness only in the hospital in Kathmandu.”
After being discharged from a hospital in Siliguri, India, on July 9, Phoolmaya was flown to Kathmandu for further medical treatment at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) after the Women, Children and Social Welfare Committee of Parliament directed the Home Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Population to make immediate arrangements for her treatment and relief.
But it wasn’t, and it still isn’t for Phoolmaya, or any rape victim, to be accepted by the still conservative Nepali society largely dominated by male chauvinism.
Initially, TUTH had refused to admit the victim, who kept losing consciousness, couldn’t take food or even sit, saying she did not require treatment, and sent her home.
But her medical record shows hymen rapture and forced penetration in sexual intercourse, both indications of rape.
While the medical case has been settled, now, two months later, a debate has sprouted if Phoolmaya were be reinstated as a nun following the rape.
Ani Choying Drolma, the founder for the nunnery in Pharping who has adopted Phoolmaya, says, “This isn’t a time to debate but think of how to rehabilitate her.”
Drolma says she accepted her, considering the situation then, upon the request of the victim’s parents and to have Phoolmaya in a comforting environment.
At the Arya Tara School in Pharping, Phoolmaya is recovering. Her roommates and the school in-charge say that she spends most of her time praying. One of her roommates also says that she has started opening up about her family, but not of the June 24 incident.
Phoolmaya’s health has also shown signs of improvement: When she came, her roommates say she was weak, had problems eating, couldn’t sit or walk properly and vomited.
“I used to have headache and couldn’t open my eyes,” says Phoolmaya with her face lightened with smile during the entire conversation. “I used to think in the hospital what had happened to me, and if ever I would get better. But now, it’s getting better.”
But she is still not good enough to go to the court to give her statement. The case has been filed in the Sankhuwasabha District Court and the first trial is expected by the end of this Nepali month, informed District Attorney General Krishna Batu Bhandari in a telephone interview.
Upon charged as guilty, all five men— Raju Limbu, Sovit Magar, Bhuwan Gurung, Avishek Magar, and Drona Bahadur Rai—will get imprisonment for 13 years. However, Bhandari says, one of the accused is underage, and upon proof of his age, his sentence might be lesser.
According to the Muluki Ain, Nepal’s legal code, there is an imprisonment ranging from five to seven years for raping a woman 20 years or above. But there is a further provision for gang rape: an additional five years to the imprisonment mentioned. According to law, also the people who help in a rape case, as in Phoolmaya’s case, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.
On one hand, while the legal case is yet to be heard, the Buddhist nun is already caught in a battle between Buddhist philosophies as some traditionalists are questioning her nun’s status.
Robert A. F. Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, says Phoolmaya is still a nun and her suffering will only make her more dedicated to her monastic retreat.
In an e-mail to The Week, Thurman writes, “It is atrocious that anyone should think of forcing her out of her nun’s vocation. This would be somewhat like the honor killings in some other current cultures in other countries where a young girl can be blamed for being raped and even killed by her brothers, as if the raping was her fault.”
Acharya Karma Sangbo, Vice Chairman of the Lumbini Development Trust and also the General Secretary of Nepal Buddhist Federation, says that “any debate in this case would be useless.”
Also as the spokesperson of the Federation, Sangbo says that in the Buddha’s time, too, such incidents occurred, such as when a married woman who converted to nun was raped by her own son and still continued her practice.
Citing the Vinaya Sutra, a law for the bhikkhunis, or nuns, he says since the rape was forced and the subject didn’t have any intentions of indulging into sexual activity or got any pleasure from it, she could still continue as a nun.
And same is the case for Phoolmaya, too, he says.
Thurman also gives another similar example, referring to the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya, translated into Tibetan and used for the monks’ and nuns’ Theravada vows in Tibet for more than a millennium. It mentions about the male monk raped by a muscular female was pardoned by the Buddha Himself from sexual misconduct and didn’t disbar him from the order of bhikkhus.
“This decision was controversial and is debated by Tibetan scholars to this day, but it was the Buddha Shakyamuni’s own decision,” says Thurman who has studied Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism for almost thirty years as a personal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Sapana Pradhan Malla, Nepal’s Constituent Assembly member and an advocate for women’s rights, says it’s surprising how some Buddhist scholars are making comments and referring to the nun as being “polluted.”
“Even if there are concepts as such in Buddhism, I think we need to challenge those kinds of concepts and interpretations,” says Malla who is also following and assisting in Phoolmaya’s case in coordination with the Forum for Women, Law and Development. “When it is done under coercion, how can you make the victim herself responsible for that has happened?”
However, she expresses happiness on how the state has handled this case so far but also wants the society to be sensitive toward this issue.
Drolma says that Phoolmaya’s case shouldn’t only be scrutinized as a nun’s rape case but should be emphasized nationally for any woman could be raped, and it could happen to anyone.
“We have to make our voices heard so that incidents such as this don’t take place in future—not only to someone devoted to religion but any woman,” she says.
As Phoolmaya’s case awaits a court date and justice at large, CA member Malla says that justice isn’t only punishing the accused. She believes the society should intervene and facilitate her rehabilitation, and her future course.
But the 21-year-old from Bhojpur seemed disillusioned about where she stands or what’s happening in her universe.
She became a nun at the age of 11. She says, as a child she always wanted to help her mother with the household chores, one reason she discontinued school. Later, she discovered about Buddhist philosophies and thought she would pay off her parent’s dues by dedicating herself to God.“I wanted to get enlightened,” she says.
In her maroon robe, sitting on the bed, occasionally wiping sweat off her forehead with a handkerchief, she speaks with hope and confidence that she’ll continue her devotion in the field she has chosen.
“I just want to study and become a good Ani [nun] and devote myself to this end,” Phoolmaya says.
The Week wanted to know what our readers had to say about this issue. Their opinions, however, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Week.
Pema Lakhi
I feel that this is an apt example of how the organized religion mafia has taken all of us hostage – the social and religious norms that they lay out transcend all aspects of our lives and reasoning.
Each day where she lives with the uncertainty of where she stands multiplies her mental trauma - something that would hamper her emotional well being as well. It is the mind that needs “cleansing” and not the physical being. The Buddha said this and I truly agree. These leaders just want to interpret and create rituals to magnify their importance as upholders of the religion.
Prashant Singh
It is sad and deplorable that even the Buddhist sects in our part of the world are essentially following the rotten caste system of us Hindus. One wonders if the nun is now regretting having reported the incident. How long would we continue to victimize the victims? Hope this incidence makes a course correction.
John Koirala
Unfortunate!! Anyway, still anyone with pure soul does matter. In ancient times, our rishi munis were also disturbed by many angels, ‘pari’s (apsaras from heaven). But what angels did are secret anyway. But rishi munis were not questioned. In this case, she is still the nun as long as her mind/soul is devoted to God, as long as she wants to dedicate her life to God.
Who are you to declare she is nun/or not? You can’t decide if she goes to heaven or hell. So it’s up to her to decide if she still wants to continue or not, others just (put their nose on) decide what to do with those criminals.
Akash Shrestha
To reiterate a former (and very much alive) stance, for Nepal the biggest problem has always been the case of misplaced priorities. And in this case, it is the fate of the offender versus the victim. Religion preaches forgiveness but forgiveness for a sin not committed is the issue at play here, and that should be the start to the debate at Sankhuwasabha. In fact, why the debate when the facts are clear? Well, never underestimate the power of stupidity!
Tsering Sherpa Khambache
That monastic rule was not made by the Buddha Himself. It’s the people who followed it as part of Buddhist tradition which doesn’t mean it is right. Society is not qualified enough to decide whether she can continue practicing her belief or not.
It’s completely up to the individual’s will. It’s not necessary what she will be entitled with. It’s more like an individual journey. But yes, we should support her.
Ayush Joshi
I feel repelled by the machismo thoughts of people who feel that religion, title, status are the sole defining factors of a person’s life. She might be healed soon but the hidden bruises attached to her dignity would surely leave a lifelong mark; the only thing that might ease her pain is, if we all feel for her, empathize with her condition and understand that such incidents happen on a large scale, and only a few are reported simply because of the social stigma attached to it.
So, rather than associating her sentiments and pain to herald a discussion which might be nothing but mere “gossip,” we can surely follow up on this case and positively pressure the authorities concerned to see that the culprit and his associates are brought to book! The need of the hour is to flush our stereotype thoughts and stop attacking someone’s sentiments because she was a victim who was brave enough to report a crime.
Let’s respect her for who she is and not ridicule her self-esteem for what she went through.
Raphaelle Joriot-Kafle
Clearly, it is extremely sad to hear that people are questioning whether or not she is still “entitled to her nun’s title.” It should go without doubt that she is a nun before or after having succumbed to such a terrible ordeal.
Well, all this is if she still wishes to be a nun. Personally, I hadn’t even thought of her losing her nun’s title. Yes, we live in a Man’s World!
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