ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of sacred spaces for Buddhist women. It also discusses issues concerned with women's experience of the sacred and female symbols associated with the sacred. The chapter explores the issues such as what religious roles and rituals women participate in and the expression of their participation in Buddhist religious architecture. The epigraphic evidence from Piprahawa provides additional proof of the symbolic involvement of women at direct or indirect levels with the stupa. The conduct of specialised rituals and worship by women within Buddhism suggests a separate and parallel growth on spiritual and religious lines within Buddhism. Despite the exhaustive works on female deities, dkinis, Siddhs and the like in the field of archaeological research, there is very little that can be taken to identify the spiritual presence of these female Buddhists at the countless Buddhist sites that dot the South Asian landscape.
