Yeshe Tsogyal is the foremost Tibetan woman associated with the advent of Buddhism in Tibet. This was a time of imperial power, when Tibet controlled vast tracts of Central Asia between the seventh and ninth centuries. A princess-turned-yogini in the lore of that period, Yeshe Tsogyal is remembered as the disciple and consort to the great Indian tantric master, Padmasambhava, and later a teacher in her own right. She has remained central to Tibetan art and ritual and continues to be a living presence for Tibetans amid pilgrimage sites associated with her, in the visions of realized masters, and through her emanations in each generation.

Until now, English readers have only had access to one version of Yeshe Tsogyal’s life story, revealed by Taksham Nuden Dorje in the seventeenth century. This August, a new translation came out from Shambhala Publications, translated by Chonyi Drolma, of a lesser known version of her life revealed by the fourteenth-century master, Drime Kunga.  The Life and Visions of Yeshe Tsogyal: The Autobiography of the Great Wisdom Queen also contains photographs of sites associated with Yeshe Tsogyal in central Tibet and a series of introductory essays:

• “Inspirations from Yeshe Tsogyal’s Namthar” by Khandro Trinlay Chodron
• “Our Incalcuable Debt to Yeshe Tsogyal” by Anam Thubten Rinpoche
• “Yeshe Tsogyal, the Guiding Light” by Chagdud Khadro
• “Mother of the Victorious Ones” by Judith Simmer-Brown
• “In the Company of Angels and Saints” by Ngawang Zangpo
• “Yeshe Tsogyal as Female Exemplar” by Holly Gayley

See an article I wrote on the “Many Lives of Yeshe Tsogyal” many years ago for the magazine, Buddhadharma.

The Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women took place in Hong Kong from June 22 to 28, 2017. There I presented a paper on “A Contemporary Emanation of Green Tara in Tibet,” exploring the newest (as yet unpublished) biography of Khandro Tare Lhamo (1938-2002), a contemporary female Buddhist visionary from eastern Tibet. This local version of her life story casts her as an emanation of Tara, her namesake, and focuses on her compassionate and visionary activities early in life, while still living in her homeland of Padma County in Golok, eastern Tibet.

My paper discusses the importance of local conceptions of the bodhisattva Tara, her enduring presence for Tibetans in the form of female emanations, and Tare Lhamo’s compassionate intervention in the lives of local community members.

The conference proceedings will be available soon in e-book format on the Sakyadhita website. See photos of the conference below (by clicking on “Continue reading”).

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Though the 17th Karmapa may be more well-known in the west for his promotion of vegetarianism at the 2007 Kagyu Monlam, Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro has campaigned for the compassionate treatment of animals on various fronts since the early 2000s.

A renowned khenpo (cleric-scholar) at the helm of Larung Buddhist Academy in Serta, Tsultrim Lodro has called on ordinary Tibetans in nomadic areas to stop selling their livestock for slaughter, to minimize the suffering of animals when killing for their own consumption, and to reduce their own meat consumption with further encouragement for monastics to become vegetarian.

Due to his advocacy and that of the Karmapa, many Nyingma and Kagyu monasteries in eastern Tibet no longer serve meat from their monastery kitchens, though individual monks and nuns are free to follow their own dietary choices outside of communal meals. In some areas, ordinary Tibetan families observe meatless days on holiday occasions.

Tsultrim Lodro also promotes the protection of wildlife habitats and the traditional practice of “liberating lives” (tshe thar), which involves releasing fish into lakes or tying a ribbon to a yak to mark it as forever “liberated” from slaughter (as the photo above shows). Read more about Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro’s advocacy for animal welfare in my article, “The Compassionate Treatment of Animals: A Contemporary Buddhist Approach in Eastern Tibet” in the March 2017 issue of the Journal of Religious Ethics. 

Buddhist ethical reform has become a major force in eastern Tibet, spearheaded by Larung Buddhist Academy in remote Serta, also known as Larung Gar. A new set of “ten virtues” (dge bcu), first formulated in 2008, have spread to neighboring areas in Kandze Prefecture and beyond. In “Reimagining Buddhist Ethics on the Tibetan Plateau,” I trace the ideological basis for this reform movement in the writings of Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro, one of the main successors of Larung founder, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok (1933-2004).  And, with Professor Padma ‘tsho in “Nonviolence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau,” I explore a new articulation of nonviolence in the “amulet for peace” (zhi bde rtags ma) introduced by Khenpo Rigdzin Dargye in 2012.

Sadly, the state-mandated demolition of numerous monastic residences has been underway at Larung Gar since July. For the most up-to-date information, visit Radio Free Asia. For more photos and a short essay on the importance of Larung Gar, see my “Why Larung Gar, the Buddhist institute in eastern Tibet, is so Important” on The Lion’s Roar.

Monks circumambulating the Jutrul Temple at Larung Gar, photo by Holly Gayley.

Last fall, The Arrow Journal dedicated a special issue to Buddhism & Feminism, revisiting some of the stands taken by the late Rita Gross, one of the first feminist theologians to write about Buddhism.

The issue centers on an article by philosopher Alexis Shotwell, “‘Like Water into Water’: If Buddhism, then Feminism. But What Sort of Feminism.” Shotwell explores the ways that Buddhism and feminism are compatible with an emphasis on thinking through what sort of feminism would best serve contemporary Buddhist communities in North America in their ongoing diversity work.

I was asked to be one of three respondents to the article, alongside Judith Simmer-Brown, who offers a compelling account of feminist struggles during the 1970s and 80s within Buddhist convert communities in the US, and Sara Lewis who tackles gender issues within a Buddhist framework of relative and ultimate truth. My own response, “Where Do We Look for Buddhist Feminism,” addresses a broad question about methodology, asking what sources we use to construct a “Buddhist” position on a given contemporary ethical issue, particularly gender given the complex array of Buddhist representations in art, texts, and ritual performance. This is the third year for The Arrow Journal, co-founded by Gabe Dayley and Kai Beavers as a site of engagement between contemplative practice, politics, and activism.

Karma Lekshe Tsomo is charting another conversation on the topic with her next edited volume, Buddhist Feminism(s) and Femininities, forthcoming from SUNY Press. The volume includes contributions by Karen Lang, Lisa Battaglia, Jeff Wilson, Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, and others. My contribution to the volume, “Gendered Hagiography in Tibet: Comparing Clerical Representations of the Female Visionary, Khandro Tare Lhamo,” explores salient differences between three biographies of Tare Lhamo by monastics in Golok with distinct perspectives on her identity.

Cover of The Arrow 3:1 featuring original artwork by Alicia Brown.

Nicole Willock and I co-edited the May 2016 issue of Himalaya on the theme,  “The Secular in Tibetan Cultural Worlds.” The issue examines Tibetan responses to secularism in diverse geographic contexts from Himalaya to Central Asia with contributions by Tsering Gonkatsang, Matthew King, Leigh Miller, Emmi Okada, Annabella Pitkin, Françoise Robin, Dominique Townsend, and the co-editors. Our introduction, “Theorizing the Secular in Tibetan Cultural Worlds,” discusses the categories of ‘religion’ and the ‘secular’ in Tibetan discourse as they emerged historically and places them within the context of the varieties of Asian secularisms. My own article, “Controversy over Buddhist Ethical Reform: A Secular Critique of Clerical Authority in the Tibetan Blogosphere,” examines the blogosphere debate over ethical reform inaugurated in eastern Tibet by Larung Buddhist Academy.

Cover of Himalaya 36:1, artwork by Dedron (Luciano Benetton Collection).

Khandro Tare Lhamo had connections with the Dudjom lineage through her root teacher, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima (1904-1958), who was the grandson and speech emanation of Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904), and through her first marriage to his son, Mingyur Dorje (1934-1959). In the early 1990s, Khandro Tare Lhamo recognized one of the reincarnations of Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (1904-1987), the renowned reincarnation of Dudjom Lingpa who served as the head of the Nyingma lineage in exile.

Dudjom Lingpa was a terton (treasure revealer) and a towering figure in the Golok treasure scene and his eight sons all became important religious figures in the region. Several years ago, I wrote a series of three short essays for the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) website on the Dudjom lineage according to historian Pema Osal Thaye. “The Scions of Dudjom Lingpa” discusses the importance of family lineage in the transmission of Nyingma teachings, particularly the revelations of “treasures” or terma. “Articulating Lineage in Golok” explores different modes of religious authority and lineage transmission in the case of Dudjom Lingpa and his scions. And “Who’s Who in the Dudjom Lineage” provides an overview of his family lineage across four generations.

Statue of Dudjom Lingpa at Tsimda Monastery, photo by Holly Gayley.