FEMALE TEACHERS/LINEAGES

This page is dedicated to new research and translations connected to female teachers (past and present) and female lineages/female-founded practices. There is another page dedicated to issues related to gender, biology and women in Buddhism here.

New research (and other women’s names) will be added as and when published. Recently, the Larung Gar nunnery in Kham, Tibet published a 16-volume collection/anthology of Indian and Tibetan women’s biographies, A Garland of White Lotuses: Life-Stories of Noble Tibetan ‘Great Born’ Women (‘Phags bod kyi skyes chen ma dag gi rnam par thar ba padma dkar po’i phreng ba), and this is something I hope to do more work on too. For more on the Larung Gar nuns and publications, see interview podcast with Chinese origin scholar-translator, Dr. Jue Liang.

Female lineages/teachers

(Listed Alphabetically)

Achi Chokyi Drolma (11th Century)

GODDESS QUEEN OF SPACE: ACHI CHOKYI DROLMA. Life-Story, Texts, Depictions, ‘Praise to Achi’ by Jigten Sumgon and Teaching by 8th Garchen Rinpoche

Ārya Kshema (c. 250 BCE)

BRAVEHEART BUDDHA: Women and lower castes as ‘foremost’ disciples, colloquial language teachings, ‘six requisites’ of monastics and the all-male ‘first council’

Bhaddā Kāpilānī (c. 250 BCE)

THE ‘GOLDEN GODDESS’ NUN WHOM BUDDHA SAID WAS BEST AT RECOLLECTING PREVIOUS LIVES AND ATTAINED ARHATSHIP: BHADDA-KAPILANI. Introduction to Bhaddā Kāpilānī’s life-story, previous lives and excellent qualities.

Chinese Empresses

7TH CENTURY CHINESE QUEEN’S SHOWER OF BLESSINGS ON A 21st CENTURY AMERICAN WILDFIRE: Garchen Rinpoche and the Gyanagma Wheel of Princess Wencheng: her life, influence and sacred objects in Tibet

EMPRESS XU’S DREAM REVELATION OF A SUTRA BY AVALOKITESVARA AND ADVOCATE OF WOMEN’S EDUCATION. ‘Good Deeds’ by 17th Karmapa (Day 9: part 2)

Indian Mahasidda, Machig Drupai Gyalmo

THE INSEPARABILITY OF THE DAKINI LINEAGE’S RED AVALOKITESHVARA (GYALWA GYAMTSO) AND 2ND KARMAPA, KARMA PAKSHI: Five-Deity Mandala of Red Avalokiteshvara and Karma Pakshi’s Guru Yoga mandala; female siddha lineage of Machig Drupe Gyalmo to Rechungpa; PLUS NEW TRANSLATION of Supplication and Short Daily Practice of five-deity Red Avalokiteshvara by Third Karmapa

Freda Bedi (20th Century)

‘TOWARDS SUPREME ILLUMINATION’: Guru Yoga Texts by 16th Karmapa and translations by the Karmapas’ first female translator, Freda Bedi

Gelongma Palmo (11th Century)

SEEING SICKNESS AND SUFFERING AS POSITIVE: Female Mahasiddha and Lineage Founder, Gelongma Palmo and the 11-faced, 1000-armed Avalokitesvara (Nyung Ne) and teaching by 8th Garchen Rinpoche

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (20th-21st Century)

AN EMANATION OF NOBLE TĀRĀ: The amazing life and activities of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (Dakini Conversations podcast, Ep.6)

‘I DON’T EAT MY FRIENDS’: 78th birthday offering to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, meditator, teacher and nunnery founder, on eating animals

Jomo Menmo

‘Gathering of all the Ḍākinī’s Secrets’ (Khandro Sangdu), the empowerment ‘Gathering of Vārāhīs’ and the ‘Lady Demoness’ female terton, Jomo Menmo

Machig Jobum

Machig Jobum: Female mahasiddha and lineage holder of Dro Kālacakra

Machig Labdron (12th Century)

CHOD LINEAGES AND MACHIG LABDRON: Indic-Tibetan Sources, Contemporary Works, The Karmapas and ‘The Long Lineage Supplication to Machig” by Bengar Jampel Zangpo

Mandāravā (8th Century)

15th Karmapa on the ‘Immortal Life-Essence Bindu’ treasure: long-life practice of Padmasambhava and Mandāravā

NEW TRANSLATION: ‘Praises to Mandāravā’ by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

Queen Māyā, Buddha’s Mother (c. 250 BCE)

RE-TELLING (AND RE-NAMING) ‘LHABAB DUCHEN’: WHEN MILK STREAMED FROM MOTHER’S BREASTS TO BUDDHA’S MOUTH AND BUDDHA’S GREAT ACT OF REPAYING MOTHER’S KINDNESS

Niguma (c. 10th – 11th Century)

THE YOGA OF LADY NIGUMA AS COMPILED BY TARANATHA AND PRESENTED BY KALU RINPOCHE: Niguma Yoga presentations in Bhutan and India by 2nd Kalu Rinpoche; and textual and historical background

Queen Margyelma

A WOMAN’S VOICE (II): THE ALLEGEDLY CRUEL TIBETAN QUEEN, MARGYELMA AND UNRELIABLE BIOGRAPHIES: A white, male biographer’s treatment and shaky sources on the villainess Tibetan queen, Margyel Dongkar, the denigration/silencing of a female scholar-translator’s comments on it, and another unreliable biography about the 16th Karmapa

Milarepa’s female disciples

Rechungma’s Song of ‘Fifteen Realisations

HEARING ‘HER-STORY’(I): MILAREPA’S FEMALE YOGINI (NYA-MA) STUDENTS AND SONGS OF SALEY O. ‘Male-centred’ Buddhist history, Milarepa’s main female disciples, and the songs and story of Tibetan woman, Saley O

Khandro Rinpoche – 15th Karmapa’s consort (21st Century)

THE ‘GREAT DAKINI OF TSURPU’, KHANDRO RINPOCHE, ON THE ‘FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS’: FIRST TURNING OF DHARMA WHEEL (CHOKOR DUCHEN)

Kunzang Trinley Wangmo (16th Century)

A Woman’s Voice : the Autobiography of Kunga Trinley Wangmo, (Zhentong lineage holder and secret consort of Tāranātha)

Prajāpatī – Aunt of Buddha and first Bhikshuni nun (c. 250 BCE)

BUDDHA THE RADICAL REVOLUTIONARY AND FEMINIST: WHEN ROYALTY BOWED TO LOWER CASTES AND WOMEN BECAME FULLY-ORDAINED SANGHA (by 17th Karmapa)

THE AMAZING JOURNEY AND LEGACY OF MOTHER OF BUDDHA AND THE FEMALE SANGHA, MAHĀPRAJĀPATĪ: A Buddhist canon textual analysis of how Mahāprajāpatī, step-mother of the Buddha, with the help of Ānanda, became the first fully ordained Buddhist nun along with hundreds of other women, and the challenges Ānanda faced due to his relations with women (17th Karmapa, Day 8, 2022)

REMEMBERING AND CELEBRATING AN ESSENTIAL PILLAR OF THE BUDDHIST SANGHA: International Bikkhuni Day 2024, twenty-three foremost female disciples of Buddha and an overview of research and transcripts connected to nuns

Mahasiddhi Lakṣmīṅkarā

IN PRAISE OF THE FEMME FATALE ‘SCARLET WOMAN’: Male monastic privilege and appropriation, denigration of women, female lineages, ‘feminist’ male consorts, and Vajrayoginī with severed-head and reversed Yum-yab union

Female Teachers of Mahasiddhas Saraha and Tīlopa

DAKINI IS TRUTH!’ TILOPA’S ‘OVERLOOKED’ FEMALE TEACHERS AND ENTERING ‘UNCONVENTIONAL’ CONDUCT (TUL-ZHUG)

Mahāsiddha Tilopa:  ‘Ḍākinī’s Instruction to Tilopa on the Bardo‘

UNSUNG HEROINES, MOTHERS OF MAHĀMUDRĀ AND SOURCE OF SARAHA’S SONGS : Re-telling the (her)stories of the symbolic ‘arrow-maker’ Dakhenma, and the ‘radish-curry’ cook gurus of siddha, Saraha

DAKINI DAY OFFERING: Making the invisible female roots and flowers visible, full-colour Kagyu female-inclusive lineage thangka artwork

Sakya Jetsunmas

EMANATIONS OF VAJRAYOGINI? The Sakya Jetsunmas, a family-inherited lineage

Sthūlanandā – one of Buddha’s nuns/disciples (c. 250 C.E.)

THE ‘FAT JOYFUL’ NUN, STHULANANDA: ‘BADDEST-BALDIE’ IN THE VINAYA OR ‘BAD-ASS’ PROTO-FEMINIST? Early Buddhist nun, Sthūlanandā’s ‘badness’ challenging male monastic privilege or a powerful symbol of the futile ‘trappings’ of following rules without real, inner transformation

Utpalavarṇā – one of Buddha’s nuns/disciples (c. 250 C.E.)

A woman’s devotion: Utpalavarṇā, the first to greet Buddha’s Descent from the Heavens (Lhabab Duchen)

Yeshe Tshogyel (8th Century)

SEEING THE FACE OF GURU PADMA: SONGS OF DETERMINATION AND DEVOTION BY YESHE TSOGYEL. New translation (with Tibetan and phonetics) of songs by Yeshe Tsogyel

THE LIFE AND ‘SOUL’ OF YESHE TSOGYEL. As woman, disciple, consort and dákini; and contemporary female empowerment in Tibet. Interview with Dr. Jue Liang (Dakini Conversations, Ep.5)

NOT A MOUNTED TIGRESS BUT A POWERFUL COUGAR? YESHE TSOGYEL AT TIGER’S NEST (PARO TAGTSANG) WITH HER YOUNG MALE CONSORTS. Yeshe Tsogyel’s connection to Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan, her young male consorts, contemporary research on her life-stories and a 21st Century interpretation of her experiences as a woman (Bhutan 2022))

BLISS QUEEN: YESHE TSOGYEL AND VAJRAYOGINĪ.Their connection, supplications and new translation of Yeshe Tsogyel ‘Self-Liberation from Clinging’ Supplication by Terton-Yogini, Tare Lhamo

‘Yeshe Tshogyel Guru Yoga‘ by 15th Karmapa

Yeshe Tsogyel’s Descent to the Hell Realms and How She Got Her Name