The Buddha’s mother had died in childbirth and he was raised by his aunt, Mahapajapati Gotami. With a motivation to develop spiritually to her fullest capacity, she repeatedly requested that the Buddha create a nun’s order and asked that the nuns be equal to monks. She marched with five hundred women to make this request, in an action called by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, the first women’s right march.

This story of the Buddha’s lifetime as a female is an important pivotal story in the succession of lives because this it feature’s a woman making the enlightened intention that lays the foundation for the future attainment of Buddhahood.