The Female Principle

This section of the wesbite is for articles and research that are specifically related to issues connected to gender, sexuality and females in Buddhism. For research and translations specifically on female teachers and lineage holders/founders, see here.

BUDDHIST PRACTICE, VOWS AND TANTRA DOES NOT ALLOW OR EXCUSE ABUSE OF WOMEN OR CHILDREN: Report on recent revelations about the Epstein files and 14th Dalai Lama, and a general analysis about the ongoing misinterpretation and misuse of Vajrayana Buddhist tantric practice by male teachers to justify sexual abuse and forcing/pressuring women, children and minors into sexual conduct with adult male teachers

NOT SO “HOLY ISLE”? TRAGIC TALES OF REPORTED (AND ENABLED) BULLYING AND SEXUAL MISCONDUCT TOWARDS WOMEN AT SAMYE LING UK BUDDHIST CENTRES THAT ENDED IN PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM, ATTEMPTED SUICIDES AND MURDER: Several prior complaints from women regarding Drupon Karma Lhabu, Katen Lama and other teachers at Samye Ling and Holy Isle women’s retreat, including assaults by the man who went on to murder of HE Akong Rinpoche

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN AND NO MUTUAL NON-SECTARIAN RESPECT: Noble Tārā statues but no actual “wisdom” women and no prostrations offered to 12th Tai Situpa by Gelugpa monks

GOING BEYOND APPEARANCES OF FEMALE BEAUTY: The “dollybird” phenomenon, and how images of beauty are used against women (and even censored) in the name of “empowering women” in male-led Buddhist communities

WOMEN’S STORIES AND VOICES: YESHE TSOGYEL, SALEY-O and RECHUNGMA. International Women’s Day, March 8 2025

ECSTATIC MUSIC OF THE BLISS DAKINI “UNTIMELY DEATH SUMMONS” RITUAL BY 17TH KARMAPA: The remarkable life-story of wisdom dakini, Drowa Zangmo (Teacher and consort, of Gyalwa Gotsangpa and Ogyenpa) and first female tulku in Tibet, from new translated Introduction of “Ecstatic Music of the Bliss Dakini: An easy to perform way of offering to repel, untimely summons of dakinis” by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (English Translation)

What is a Khandro (Ḍākinī) in Buddhism? (2025)

WOMAN AS WISDOM: The importance of not denigrating/insulting women in Buddhist Vajrayana (root Vajrayana downfalls I)

A Woman’s Voice (Part II): A white, male biographer’s treatment and sources on the ‘villainess Tibetan queen’, Margyel Dongkar and the denigration/silencing of a female scholar-translator’s comments on it

GOING BACK TO THE ROOTS OF VAJRAYĀNA: A 21st Century review of the female and yogic roots of Vajrayāna, monastic vows and tantric practice, and the invisible, silent female consort

MEN BEHAVING ‘BADLY’: PLAYFUL PRACTITIONERS OR MINDLESS MISOGYNISTS? THE ‘ARTS OF LOVE’ OR ‘ARTS OF ‘A**HOLERY’? The question of sexist double standards and two Tibetan Buddhist male ‘heroes’

DISCOVERING HIDDEN TREASURES: THE RARE GEMS OF LIVING TIBETAN BUDDHIST FULLY ORDAINED NUNS. A Pilgrimage and Field Study of Two Nunneries in Himachal Pradesh and fully ordained nuns within the Tibetan tradition

‘LIKE STARS IN THE DAY’, THE DESCENT OF FEMALE ARHATIS: FULLY ORDAINED TIBETAN BUDDHIST NUNS IN TIBET, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (17th Karmapa Spring Teachings (Day 13)

THE ‘CENSORED’ TARA: POWERFUL PASSION VS PRUDISH PURITY. Depictions of women in Buddhist art and literature and the sexual objectification, denigration and censorship of women’s biology and nakedness

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

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

‘DIFFICULT’ AND WILD WOMEN: THE INVISIBILITY AND OVERLOOKING OF FEMALES IN BUDDHISM, PAST AND PRESENT, PATRIARCHAL ACADEMIA AND FEMALE TOKENISM

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

DAKINI SCRIPT (Khandro Da-yig): Mysterious Symbolic Key to Hidden Treasures

THE ‘MOTHER OF WISDOM’: Pictures, poems and songs on Mother’s Day!

‘Yeshe Tshogyel Guru Yoga‘ by 15th Karmapa

The male-female tantric union: Homophobic heteronormativity or biological inner essences?

A Woman’s Voice : ‘Secret Primordial-Wisdom’, the Autobiography of Kunga Trinley Wangmo, Zhentong lineage holder and consort of Tāranātha

‘Actions Speak Louder than Words’: 17th Karmapa’s outstanding activities on female empowerment and equality 

On the meaning and translation of ‘Shentong’ – a modern debate or ignoring/belittling a woman’s voice?

Tantric Buddhism, Sex and Women: the Importance of Love, Respect and Consent

Ultimate ‘ecstatic union’: the meaning and role of ‘erotic bliss’ in tantra and Kālacakra