Women’s Voices in Tibetan Texts
Event: 2022 Lotsawa Translation Workshop – Breakout Session
Date: October 14, 2022 – 2:00 pm
Speakers: Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Kelsang Lhamo, Sarah Harding
Topics: Gender dynamics/discrimination, Machik Labdron, Niguma, Nuns’ ordination, Sukhasiddhi, Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, Tibetan Translation, Women in Tibetan History, Women in Tibetan Literature, Yeshe Tsogyal
Sarah Harding
Sarah Harding has been a Buddhist practitioner since 1974 and has been teaching and translating since completing a three-year retreat in 1980 under the guidance of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. Her publications include Creation and Completion; The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa; Treasury of Knowledge: Esoteric Instructions; Machik’s Complete Explanation; Niguma, Lady of Illusion; and four volumes of The Treasury of Precious Instructions. She was an associate professor until 2018 at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She has been a fellow of the Tsadra Foundation since 2000, and continues to work on translations under their auspices.
Kelsang Lhamo
Kelsang Lhamo was born 1973 in Lhokha area, south of Lhasa. She received teachings from Sheldrak Khen Rinpoche and Dungkar Losang Trinlé, mainly on Tibetan medicine, but also on the Five Minor Sciences, mostly Nyingma teachings. To pursue further studies, she left for India in 1989. She received novice vows from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama, and for a period of ten years studied and received Geluk teachings, mainly from Geshe Drubthob Rinpoche and many other masters. At the same time she studied Hindi language and the Vedas in Varanasi.
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
The Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo, a specialist in Buddhist studies, has taught at USD since 2000. She offers classes in Buddhist Thought and Culture, World Religions, Comparative Religious Ethics, Religious and Political Identities in the Global Community, and Negotiating Religious Diversity in India. Her research interests include women in Buddhism, death and dying, Buddhist feminist ethics, Buddhism and bioethics, religion and politics, Buddhist social ethics, and Buddhist transnationalism. She integrates scholarship and social activism through the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and Jamyang Foundation, an innovative education project for women in developing countries, with 15 schools in the Indian Himalayas, Bangladesh, and Laos.