What is "siladhara"

A siladhara was a Theravada Buddhist female monastic established by Ajahn Sumedho at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, England. In 1983, he obtained permission from the Sangha in Thailand, to give a ten-precept pabbajja to the women, making them officially recognized female renunciants trained in the Ajahn Chah lineage. The reasons for its establishment are due to the historical loss of the bhikkhuni (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 respect from the Theravada community as genuine renunciates.