The Diversity of Sexual Orientation Found in the Buddha’s Time

Abstract

This research article studies the diversity of sexual orientation through Pali names signifying people with sexual orientations diverted from the normal binary, which were perceived and called by monks in the Buddha’s time in analogy with the meaning of sex, sexual orientation, and sexual diversity, defined and categorized in the contemporary West. The purpose is to understand people's sexual diversity in early Buddhism. The study reveals that we can categorize people with sexual diversity in Buddhism by applying Western criteria. Also, there is a judgment of acceptable or unacceptable sexuality and sexual orientation made by monks through the allowance for ordination. People who have too much sexual diversity are incapable of being allowed for ordination, consisting of the group of intersexual persons (Ubhatobayañjanaka) who have variant sexuality driven by sudden and unpredictable lust, and the groups of Napuṅsakapaṇḍaka, Opakkamiyapaṇḍaka, and Pakkhapaṇḍaka, who are believed to have various types of defective sexuality due to their inverse sexual trajectory against their physical sex. These two groups have immensely variant sexual orientations, unable to determine their sex and gender. Their sexual diversity, thus, is negatively viewed by the Sangha community in the Buddha’s time.