Therī Saṅghamitta
Therī Saṅghamitta is the first woman mentioned in Buddhist records after the Buddha's direct female disciples. Although there are many legends about Saṅghamitta there is no mention of her at all in any Indian records. The only information we have about her are a few brief references in the Sri Lankan chronicles, the Dīpavaṃsa and the Mahāvaṃsa (3rd-4th cent. CE). According to these works, Saṅghamitta was the daughter of King Aśoka and a nun. After her brother Mahinda introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka and ordained the first native monks, some woman of the royal court asked to be ordained too. As the ordination of woman requires a quorum of both monks and nuns, Mahinda sent a message back to India requesting Saṅghamitta to lead a group of nuns to Sri Lanka . She arrived with a branch of the Bodhi Tree from Bodh Gayā and later ordained some woman, thus establishing the nuns Saṅgha outside India for the first time. In the 5th century the nuns Saṅgha was established in China by nuns from Sri Lanka and thus nuns in that country, in Korea and in Taiwan look to Saṅghamitta as their founder. In Sri Lanka the anniversary Saṅghamitta's arrival is celebrated every year on the full-moon in December.
