Being Included: Unique Challenges for the Identity of Fully Ordained Nuns (Gelongmas)

Eight Tibetan Buddhist women became fully ordained nuns (Tib. *dge slong ma*) in the 1980s in Hong Kong. The topic of this paper is how differences in ordination procedures create unique challenges for the identity of *gelongmas* living and practicing Tibetan Buddhism in India. Drawing from fieldwork in a nunnery and teaching institution in the northwestern Himalayan region, this paper features two *gelongmas* who have held vows for nearly forty years. They share their distinct experiences and innovative understanding of their identities as *gelongmas*–one who narrates inclusion and the other exclusion. Their experiences of identity and difference provide a lens into the authoritative claims about who counts as a *gelongma*. This presentation explores the possibilities and limitations in their everyday lives and argues that more attention be paid to the plurality of ordination practices in order to better understand how the parameters of *gelongma* ordination remain subject to scrutiny.