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The Sīladharā Order is a Theravada Buddhist female monastic order established by Ajahn Sumedho at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, England.[1] Its members are known as Sīladharās.
In 1983, he obtained permission from the Sangha in Thailand, to give a ten-precept pabbajjā to women, giving them official recognition as female renunciants trained in the Ajahn Chah lineage. The reasons for its establishment are due to the historical loss of the bhikkhunī (nun's) ordination in Theravada Buddhism, limiting renunciation for female Theravadins to ad hoc roles such as the thilashins and maechis, neither of which garner recognition from modern-day Theravada Buddhists as genuine renunciants.