It’s been such an honor in the last year or so to collaborate with Tibetan women writers, Tsedron Kyi and Tsering Yangzom Lama, alongside scholars Somtso Bhum and Dawa Lokyitsang in their Ph.D. programs at Northwestern University and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively.

I have been moved by our conversations and the many twists and turns in thematic focus and textual analysis that emerge through the collaborative process. This has been possible due to the various gatherings with Tibetan women writers since April 2022 at UVA, CU Boulder, Northwestern, and INALCO. It is so enriching to engage with authors about their own writings and be informed by the perspectives and concerns of young Tibetan scholars.

In these collaborations, I have shifted focus from contemporary Buddhist literature on the Tibetan plateau to contemporary Tibetan literature with Buddhist themes (both on the plateau and in exile) while maintaining a focus on women, gender, and sexuality.

Here are the results of these collaborations in online journals:

• “Capturing the Quotidian in the Everyday Renunciation of Buddhist Nuns in Tibet,”
  co-authored with Somtso Bhum. Journal of Tibetan Literature 2.1 (July 2023): 45–72.
• “Intergenerational Trauma and the Oracular Voice in Tsering Yangzom Lama’s Debut Novel, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies.”
  Yeshe: Journal of Tibetan Arts, Literature and Humanities 3.1 (July 2023).
• “Decolonizing Praxis: In Conversation with Tsering Yangzom Lama and Dawa Lokyitsang.”
  Yeshe: Journal of Tibetan Arts, Literature and Humanities 3.1 (July 2023).
• “Parody and Pathos: Sexual Transgression by ‘Fake’ Lamas in Tibetan Short Stories,”
  co-authored with Somtso Bhum. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 63 (April 2022).

Congrats to Sonam Nyenda and Tshering Om Tamang for the inaugural issue of the International Journal for Bhutan & Himalayan Research!

I am honored to be the guest editor for this special issue on “Contemporary Bhutanese Literature,” featuring academic articles by Sonam Kinga, Sonam Nyenda, Tshering Om Tamang and myself, along with an essay by leading Bhutanese writers, Chador Wangmo, Rinzin Rinzin and Namgyal Tshering, and other contributions. Also included is an important Preface on “Why Bhutanese Literature Matters” by Dorji Thinley, President of the Paro College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan.

My own article on “Karma and Female Agency in Novels by Bhutanese Women Writers” engages in a comparison of the novels, Circle of Karma (2005) by Kunzang Choden and Kyetse (2017) by Chador Wangmo. There are a number of parallel features in these works that make for a salient comparison. Both center on female protagonists who begin their lives with keenly-felt religious aspirations and, following a series of misfortunes that propel them from their homelands, eventually become nuns. Both are unflinching in confronting gender issues, including sexual abuse and human trafficking, through the lived experiences of an array of female characters. In addition, both use karma as a narrative devise, though to different effect, at pivotal moments in the narrative as the protagonists attempt to make sense of their predicaments. In analyzing these novels, my article examines the gendered deployment of karma and its relationship to female agency.

The PDF of the inaugural issue of the International Journal for Bhutan & Himalayan Research (Fall 2020) is available here:
https://www.colorado.edu/tibethimalayainitiative/sites/default/files/attached-files/ijbhr_inaugural_issue_fall_2020.pdf

When recounting the life stories of female visionaries, male cleric authors build on specific gendered ideals of sanctity. What is the rationale for and impact of their choices? My chapter in the newly published volume, Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities (2019), edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, compares three different versions of the life of Khandro Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002), a contemporary visionary from the Tibetan region of Golok. Each version was composed by Tibetan cleric-scholars from different regions and offer divergent perspectives on her life. Whereas in earlier hagiographic writings, Tāre Lhamo’s life is to a large extent subsumed into that of her second husband, Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), the newest namthar (or story of “complete liberation”) by Khenpo Rigdzin Dargye from Tsimda Gompa, the monastery founded by her father, presents her story on its own terms. Based on interviews with locals in her homeland, especially female companions in youth, this namthar sheds new light on Tāre Lhamo’s early years and local understandings of her religious vocation and standing. A comparison of these three versions of her life promises to reveal the surprising ways that attention to geographic and institutional situatedness can nuance our understanding of the models male authors choose to depict their female subjects.

With the global #MeToo movement underway, and recent disclosures of sexual improprieties and alleged abuse within Tibetan Buddhist communities, it seems timely to revisit the topic of sexuality in Buddhist tantra.

My newly published article, “Revisiting the Secret Consort (gsang yum) in Tibetan Buddhism” (Religions, June 2018) offers a historical lens on consort relationships to help inform contemporary contexts and controversies. I discuss shifting views and practices toward sexuality and secrecy in Tibetan Buddhism and provide examples of 20th century women who have engaged in consort relationships.

Is the consort relationship (heterosexually conceived) empowering or exploitative to women? I try to complicate this question, first raised by feminist scholars in the 1990s, by showing the variety of experiences women have had across spacial and temporal distances–from eastern Tibet to North America.

I also call attention to current voices advocating for greater transparency around sexual misconduct and alleged abuse in Tibetan Buddhist communities in Europe and North America.

Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal in union, photo by Holly Gayley.

In the last decade on the Tibetan plateau and in the diaspora, several movements have emerged that interlink Tibetan identity and Buddhist ethics. These include the new “ten virtues” (dge bcu) promoted by Larung Buddhist Academy in eastern Tibet, the Lhakar or ‘White Wednesday’ (lhag dkar) movement underway since 2009, trends in Tibetan pop music, the ‘amulet for peace’ (zhi bde rtags ma) introduced in 2012, and more.

I trace these in a chapter on “Buddhist Ethics in Contemporary Tibet” published in the new Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics (2018). The chapter explores ethical reform as a constructive process of subject formation in which loyalty to Tibetan culture and devotion to Buddhist teachers overlap. It is the culmination of several publications on Ethical Reform in Eastern Tibet.

Photo: The image for the “amulet for peace” combines global symbols for peace (dove and peace sign) with Buddhist imagery, a bodhi leave with the seed syllable Hrih on it. On this sticker, the Tibetan reads: “Friends, let’s create harmonious relations together.” Read more about the amulet for peace in an article I co-authored with Professor Padma ‘tsho, “Non-Violence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau” in the journal, Contemporary Buddhism. Photo Credit: Holly Gayley.