“A disciple like me, who is a woman with little wisdom and a dull mind; I have limited understanding and am narrow-minded. May I request an oral instruction on enlightenment in this lifetime with a female body, a teaching that is easy to know, to grasp, to understand, and to realize!”
–Yeshe Tsogyel’s request to Guru Padmasambhava
“In this expanded definition, the khandroma is equated with the feminine in general, it is the female bodhisattva and the mother of all buddhas. It is the feminine foundation for all practitioners, like the glacier is the source for all rivers. It even hails the female body as superior in benefitting beings. The khandroma has taken over other female divinities, and become a uniquely Tibetan phenomenon. The complexity of her activities also resists a clear definition, making the khandroma a grab bag term for virtually any Buddhist women.”
–Dr. Jue Liang (2020)
“If one searches for the most precious thing that sustains humankind in this world, it goes without saying that it is the enormously powerful mother. Mothers are those who foster kindness and compassion and bestow the sweet, luscious taste of livelihood.”
–First sentence in Great Treasury of Dakini teachings collection
For Tara and Guru Rinpoche Day this weekend (there is no ninth day this month), I am delighted to publish the fifth episode of the Dakini Conversations podcast, with Dr. Jue Liang, the leading, foremost scholar-translator in the world today on renowned 8th century Tibetan yogini and master, Yeshe Tsogyel (ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ). Audio only is on Spotify, Apple and Amazon Music. The video has time-stamped chapters and English subtitles (click on CC).
Originally from China, but now based in the USA, Dr. Jue Liang, is a female scholar and translator whose PhD in 2020, from the University of Virginia, was on the life of highly-realised Tibetan yogini, female lineage holder and famous consort of Guru Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyel. Dr. Liang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University and is currently completing her first book, entitled Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Early Literary Lives of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel based on her PhD. Although there are now a few English-language publications about Yeshe Tsogyel, Liang is one of the very few PhDs that considers Tsogyel’s life and legacy to the standards of academic research. In that respect one could say that Dr. Liang is one of the foremost scholar-translators in the world today on Yeshe Tsogyel. She is also working on a second project, tentatively titled Thus Has She Heard: Theorizing Gender in Contemporary Tibetan Buddhism.
In the podcast interview, we discuss Dr. Liang’s background in China and how she became interested in Tsogyel’s life-story, after visiting Larung Gar nunnery and as a postgraduate student in the USA. We then discuss her research on Tsogyel’s life and legacy, first considering sacred places associated with Tsogyel such as her birthplace, temple and ‘soul’ lake (La-tso) and ‘soul’ wood (La-shing), in Tibet. This is followed by the Tibetan textual sources available on Tsogyel, her name, and her experience and symbolic important as a woman (gender and biology), as disciple with ‘inferior’ female body, as consort and celibate nun, and as dakini. We also briefly discuss Tsogyel’s role as ‘Mother of Tibet’ as a realised master and transmitter of Vajrayana teachings and practice.
I have also written several research posts on Tsogyel before including her connection to Tiger’s Nest (Paro Tagtsang) Bhutan, liberating beings in hell realms, her connection with Varjayogini, and translated a Guru Yoga of Yeshe Tsogyel by 15th Karmapa. So it was a real treat to be able to discuss her life and legacy with such a scholar and expert on Tsogyel.
Music? Yeshe Tsogyel’s mantra, Five Dakinis/Heart Sutra by Yoko, Flying Dakini by Yungchen Lhamo and for the undefeatable life and ‘soul’ of Lady of Karchen (Karchen Za), Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan, She by Elvis Costello, and Is it Love or Desire by Betty Davis.
May we all have the resilience, determination, passion and intelligence of Yeshe Tsogyel to withstand all the obstacles, gender discrimination and so-called biological ‘inferiority’ to attain the fully awakened state for all beings!
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 22nd September 2023. Interview took place on 16th September 2023.
Review and overview of the interview and Liang’s work
Outline/Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction to Jue Liang
0:01:57 Life and studies in China
0:03:49 Buddhist Influence
0:05:44 Challenges of living in the USA and doing a PhD
0:07:25 Inspiring meeting with the nuns at Larung Gar in Tibet, 2014
0:09:35 New collection on Women’s biographies and unpublished life-stories of Tsogyel
0:12:52 The soul of Yeshe Tsogyel at sacred places in Tibet
0:18:12 The crucial experience of embodied presence in places/geography
0:21:13 The aspect of Tsogyel as woman/female and three-fold category of gender/biology
0:26:10 The Tibetan textual sources on Yeshe Tsogyel
0:29:40 Hidden Treasure revealed texts as a source on Tsogyel
0:32:22 The names of Yeshe Tsogyel
0:35:02 Yeshe Tsogyel as disciple and the zhu-len (Q&A) textual tradition
0:41:11 A sympathetic reading of the ‘inferiority’ of women’s bodies
0:43:30 Yeshe Tsogyel as teacher and ‘mother’ (as senior ‘caretaker’)
0:44:54 Tsogyel as consort (1): Deal with your Ex before you become a consort
0:49:43 Captured and sexually assaulted by a suitor, and calling out to the Guru and exchanging of rings
0:51:10 Tsogyel as a consort (2) celibate/nun/renunciant and sexual assaults
0:55:19 Goals of consort practice: liberation, revelation and healing
0:56:57 Yeshe Tsogyel as Dakini: the meaning of the term dakini/khandroma
0:59:43 Tibetan mythology of dakinis: wrathful ogress and the demoness land Tibet that needed to be tamed
1:01:39 Fuzzy Femininities and Muddled Myth
1:03:48 Larung Gar monastery, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog and female practitioners
1:06:59 The institution of the female Khenmo programme at Larung Gar
1:10:43 The Aryatare publishing initiative and the Great Treasury of Dakini Teachings collection of women’s biographies
1:14:33 Khenmo Yonten and her commentary on the five great texts
1:17:43 Tibetan nuns’ views of gender, biology and the ‘inferior’ female body
1:21:51 The concept and idea of ‘mother’ as inseparable from women/female and as ‘superior’
1:24:05 The reason behind the success of the nuns at Larung Gar
1:26:25 Future book on Tsogyel
1:27:58 Personal view of Tsogyel’s relevance and inspiration
The ‘Soul’ of Yeshe Togyel: Temple, Lake and Wood
In the podcast interview, Dr. Liang explains how she came to do her PhD on Yeshe Tosgyel. Her dissertation traces the literary traditions surrounding Yeshe Tsogyel who is said to have lived in eighth-century Tibet. However, literary accounts about her did not flourish until some six hundred years later. The dissertation “examines how an origin narrative with her as one of the core personas emerged during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as Tibetan Buddhists traced their religious pedigree and defined what counts as authentic Buddhism.” Liang’s research considers in detail three aspects of the role of Yeshe Tsogyel: a disciple, a consort, and a khandroma/ḍākinī.”
We begin our discussion where Liang’s thesis starts with visits to sacred places in Tibet associated with the birthplace and ‘soul/la’ (or life-force) of Tsogyel and the Tsogyel Lhakhang (temple) in Ngadrag, Tibet, which was also associated with the famous Karma Kagyu master, Lama Zhang. As well as a meditation cave of Tsogyel, in Chimphu (see photos below, re-published with permission). We also discuss the importance of visiting the place/geography in research about Tibetan Buddhist figures. Liang writes:
“The belief that a person’s soul (bla) resides in, or could extend to significant places and objects is already found in pre-Buddhist Tibet. In this case, the lake and wood trunk are considered to be sites where Yeshe Tsogyel’s soul remains after the passing of her physical body.”
It is said that Tsogyel was born into the aristocratic Kharchen family of the Chokdro Dri area and that her mother gave birth to a baby girl whose forehead bore the mark of crossed vajras, and whose body gave off the fragrance of a lily. At the same time, a spring of fresh water burst from the ground and formed a pond next to her house (this was later named Tsogyal La-tso, the soul lake of Tsogyal, and became a famous pilgrimage site). It was not until the 18th century when the great master Jigme Lingpa made offerings to the life force lake that its reputation as a visionary lake began to manifest. Sleeping next to the lake, he dreamed of symbols floating above the lake. Realizing they were a symbolic dakini script, he transcribed the symbols into Tibetan. This treasure is well-known today as the Longchen Nyingtik Yeshe Tsogyal Sadhana of Yumkha Dechen Gyalmo.
of Yeshe Tsogyel. Photo: Dr. Jue Liang (2016).
For videos about Tosgyel Latso in Tibet, see also the Jnanasukha Foundation Video page here.
Life stories and original textual sources on Tsogyel
In Chapter One, “The Story of Yeshe Tsogyel,” Dr. Liang outlines available written information about Yeshe Tsogyel and Tibetan primary sources used and the various genres at work in her literary tradition: The Two Earlier Lives of Yeshe Tsogyel, The Drime Kunga/Pema Lingpa corpus, The Chronicles (Bka’ thang), or the Chronicle of Padmasambhava (Padma bka’ thang yig), The Chronicle of the Queens (Btsun mo bka’ thang yig)., Yeshe Tsogyel in Colophons. Zhus lan or Question-and-Answer Texts. I asked Liang if there were any Indic sources on Tsogyel and she replied that she had not come across any.
The names of Yeshe Tsogyel
Tibet; 14th century; ground mineral pigment on paper; 15.88×20.32cm (6.25x8in); Rubin Museum of Art;
gift of the Shelly & Donald Rubin Foundation; P1998.23.11 (HAR 744)
We then discuss the naming of Tsogyel by her father, and the aspect of her gender and biological sex as a woman.
“Her father “Kharphub offered the name Yeshe Tsogyel with the following explanation:
“[She] entered the womb at the time [stars] set at Namso, [she] awakened when [they] set at Gyal. If I am to give a name to this person (lit. head, dbu), the name will be Yeshe Tsogyel. Yeshe is one of the classes of ḍākinīs, Tso pertains to staying in the womb during Namtso (Namso?), and Gyal relates to awakening at the time of Gyal. It is a fitting name.”
This etymology of the name Yeshe Tsogyel spells out her enlightened identity as a ḍākinī or a khandroma (a wisdom khandroma, to be specific), and assigns felicitous dates to her conception and birth.
Then, Tsogyel being named as Khandro by a wrathful being after she descends into hell in order to rescue Shanti, the wicked minister who condemned her to death for refusing to marry:
“After returning to Chimphu (Mchims phu), she is praised by a wrathful being (who encouraged her to go find Shanti in the first place) and given the secret name Khandro Yeshe Tsogyel. The wrathful being explains the meaning of her name as follows:
“You have perfected your realization and traverse (’gro) the space (mkha’) of reality with your wisdom (ye shes). Your compassion nurtures (’tsho) all beings and vanquishes (rgyal) all sufferings. Your compassion is more forceful than all of the peaceful and wrathful conqueror-buddhas—such as me, Heruka—combined. Because of this, I bestow you the name Khandro Yeshe Tsogyel (mkha’ ’gro ye shes mtsho rgyal).”
Liang also considers the references to her as Karchen Za or Lady of Karchen.
Yeshe Tsogyel as biological woman/female and disciple and the Zhu-len (Q&A) textual tradition/format
In her PhD, Dr. Liang categorises three aspects of Yeshe Tsogyel: as disciple, consort and dakini/khandro. In particular, the idea of the inferiority of the female body and what the role and purpose of a tantric consort and dakini is. In terms of Tsogyel as woman, Liang contextualises being a woman into three main categories: biological sex, social gender and theological gender, and how biological sex is considered important by Tibetan female practitioners in contemporary Tibet as well as karmic dispositions, which fits with something I also wrote about biological sex and consort/Vajrayana practice.
The second chapter of her thesis, “The Disciple Yeshe Tsogyel,” examines the “outer,” or most publicly accessible, role of Yeshe Tsogyel as the foremost disciple of Padmasambhava. She is widely known as and regularly listed among the most important disciples of Padmasambhava in Treasure narratives from the thirteenth century After the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as evidenced in many Treasure colophons and in the stylized meta-narratives of the dialogical accounts, Yeshe Tsogyel is frequently cited as the disciple responsible for receiving and transmitting Padmasambhava’s teachings to future generations. Liang discusses the distinctive use of zhus lan (queston and answer) texts or dialogues that adopt the Indian canonical dialogical style to authenticate lineages of Treasure teachings. These dialogues are also rich venues to explore the issue of female inferiority and women’s access to Buddhist teachings.
Liang writes that:
“These conversations begin with descriptions of the inferiority of women by the female disciples themselves, and Padmasambhava’s chastisement of women not setting their minds on the dharma and squandering away their precious human life. Nonetheless, Padmasambhava always grants the teaching in the end. The formulaic disparagement of women discloses more than simple misogyny; rather, it demonstrates the uneasiness toward women having access to Buddhist teachings and the effort to mitigate this concern. By squaring themselves with the convention of viewing women as inferior in the beginning, these dialogues averted a radical challenge to the status quo but at the same time created a literary space for women’s access to Buddhist teaching and practice.”
“A disciple like me, who is a woman with little wisdom and a dull mind; I have limited understanding and am narrow-minded. May I request an oral instruction on enlightenment in this lifetime with a female body, a teaching that is easy to know, to grasp, to understand, and to realize!”
“The majority of the zhus lan texts revealed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are dialogues between Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel, or a group of women led by her.”
In the interview, Liang mentions how the Abhidharmakosha refers to gender as a sense faculty, connected to biology but that we should take a more sympathetic and nuanced approach to the comments about female ‘inferiority’ as speaking more to challenges biological women faced during those times in particular.
Yeshe Tsogyel as Vajrayana/Tantric Consort
We then discuss Dr. Liang’s research on the “Consort Yeshe Tsogyel,” and the consort relationship between Yeshe Tsogyel and Padmasambhava. Liang quotes one text that:
“Princess Mandarava, the Nepalese Kālasiddhi, the Nepalese girl Śākyadevī, the Mönpa girl Tashi Khyedren, and the woman Yeshe Tsogyel—these are the five women that captivated the heart of the master.”
Using contemporary (and provocative) titles such as Deal with Your Ex Before you become a Consort and Consorts as Nuns, Liang addresses how women often have to leave a worldly relationship with a man behind, citing Tsogyel’s own story of leaving her worldly lover,and even dealing with sexual assault, which leads her to pray to Padmasambhava for help and making the connection with him. Rings are exchanged on leaving her worldly relation with her ex and sealing her consort relation with Padmasambhava.
This is followed by the revelation (for some) that Tsogyel (and Princess Mandarava, another well-disciple and consort of Padmasambhava were both referred to and identified as nuns) and the whole notion of celibacy and consort practice, a subject I also recently was interviewed about here. Liang considers the different (but not mutually exclusive) goals of consort practice: 1) Liberation, 2) Treasure Revelation and 3) Healing, and concludes that celibacy is not contradictory when done in the context of liberation and treasure revelation.
In fact, Tsogyel later went on to take her own male consorts and students, staying with them at the famed Paro Tiger’s Nest (Tagtsang) in Bhutan, for more on that see here. This latter aspect of Tsogyel as teacher and master is not considered in Dr. Liang’s thesis, but she explains how her forthcoming book expands on what she wrote and considers her role as the ‘Mother of Tibet’, a childless mother but a teacher and master of Tibetans in her own right.
Yeshe Tsogyel as ḍākinī/khandro: the meaning of the term dākini
We then discuss the fourth and last chapter of Liang’s thesis, “Khandroma Yeshe Tsogyel” that highlights the particular significance of the ḍākinī/khandroma, its Indian precedents and Tibetan developments, and whom Liang writes is:
“A type of female divinity that came to outshine all others and became the goddess par excellence in the Treasure context. By reading khandroma narratives as myth, I argue that the indeterminate nature of the khandroma is the site in which paradoxical identities of Buddhist women are negotiated.”
In defining the meaning of ḍākinī, Liang writes:
“Ḍā means sky travel, and she who is directly realized in space, that is, who has achieved [the ability] to range all throughout the sky, is called the ḍākinī. She who is united with all buddhas by means of all mudrā without exception and the great bliss of all without exception is known as the ḍākinī. She who is the ḍākinī is composed of the buddha elements. The ḍākinī who is the self of all buddhas has achieved [the ability to] go everywhere.
In this expanded definition, the khandroma is equated with the feminine in general, it is the female bodhisattva and the mother of all buddhas. It is the feminine foundation for all practitioners, like the glacier is the source for all rivers. It even hails the female body as superior in benefitting beings. The khandroma has taken over other female divinities, and become a uniquely Tibetan phenomenon. The complexity of her activities also resists a clear definition, making the khandroma a grab bag term for virtually any Buddhist women.”
Dakini as demoness of Tibet
Liang’s research also considers the difference between a worldly and wisdom/supramundane ḍākinī and a demoness. Citing the example of the country Tibet equated with a demoness lying on her back, ‘demoness of Tibet’ and its binding/suppression by King Songsten Gampo to allow Buddhism to take root there. As a result of these differing definitions, Liang asserts that:
“..the identity of a khandroma is used to strategically negotiate the problematic apotheosis of women, because her indeterminate nature provides a space for women to be both powerful yet subdued, to be active but interdependent, and to be venerated but not for her physical femininity.”
We briefly discuss Liang’s categorisation of the ḍākinī as the ‘demoness that does not need subjugation’, ‘Agent Without Agency’, and ‘Childless Mother’. Fuzzy Femininities and Muddled Myth.
Contemporary female practitioners in Tibet: Larung Gar and the Khenmo programme and Aryatare publications
In the final part of the interview, I ask Liang about her research on the nuns of Larung Gar and the Khenmo programme started there by the renowned Nyingma master, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog [1]. Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, also known as Serthar Buddhist Institute, sits in the Larung Valley at an elevation of 4,000 meters, about 15 km from the town Sêrtar, in Sertar County, Garze Prefecture in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham, in western Sichuan, China. In her 2020 co-written paper called Tilling the Fields of Merit, Liang discusses these topics as well as the publications arm of Larung Gar run by the nuns (Arya Tare) and Khenmo Yonten, one of the first Tibetan females to have written and published commentaries on the major texts studied in monastic institutions.
This research discusses the bigger programme at Yarchen Gar, Jigme Phuntsog’s strict rules of admission to Larung Gar, and refusal of young women as consorts. As well as the non-sectarianism of Larung Gar studies, inclusion of Han Chinese practitioners and his teaching at Mount Wutai. Liang cites a quote of Phuntsog:
“A monastery is a place where equality is preached but not practiced; a gar is a place where equality is practiced but not preached.”
The first female khenmo awards were in 2004 and thus were the first in Tibetan Buddhist history to get such degrees. As of 2018, there were just under 200 graduated khenmos associated with Larung—one of the abbots of Larung estimated 104 Tibetan khenmos at Larung Gar, 58 of whom are on leave due to sickness or “other reasons.” 10 The khenmo program, once run by senior monks and khenpos, is today run largely by the khenmos themselves: A majority of the teachers are khenmos rather than khenpos, and a committee of senior khenmos also has a voice in designing the curriculum for the khenmo/po programs of Larung Gar.
Āryatāré, the publishing arm of Larung, annually producing dozens of books and publications, as well as other multimedia materials. Perhaps the most impressive of Āryatāré’s projects is their Great Treasury of Ḍākinī Teachings (Mkha’ ’gro’i chos mdzod chen mo), a fifty-three-volume collection of works by and about important Buddhist women, spanning from Mahāprajāpatī to Mumé Yeshe Tsomo. Now available on the BDRC website [2].
In the interview, Dr. Liang also briefly discusses the success of these female-oriented initiatives, with full and active participation of women as writers, scholars, administrators and teachers. Including Khenmo Yonten, the first Tibetan nun to write an extensive commentary on the five main texts studied at Larung Gar. Currently, Larung Gar is closed to all foreign visitors and only Chinese nationals can visit there [3].
Endnotes
[1] Liang writes that a “common appellation found haloing Jigme Phuntsok on icons and shrines says his teachings are like “the blissful sun rising in the Snowland as the miserable period of darkness fades (dus ’khrug gi mun nag dbyings su yal/ bod gangs can la bde ba’i nyi ma shar).”
[2] For example, the editors collected all the stories about Buddhist women from the Vinaya and the sūtras, where they are rarely foregrounded, compiling them into two individual collections entitled Collected Stories of the Female Monastics of the Vinayapiṭaka (‘dul ba’i sde snod las btus pa’i dge sbyong ma sogs kyi rnam thar skor) and Collected Stories of the Female Bodhisattvas of the Sūtra-piṭaka (mdo sde’i ste snod las btus pa’i byang chub sems ma’i rnam thar skor). These two collections comprise the first five volumes of the Treasury.
[3] For the government re-location and ‘downsizing’ of hundreds of nuns at Larung Gar in 2016, see here.
Bibliography/Sources
Angowski, Elizabeth. Literature and the Moral Life: Reading the Early Biography of the Tibetan Queen Yeshe Tsogyal. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2019.
Drolma, Chonyi (tr.). The Life and Visions of Yeshe Tsogyal: The Autobiography of the Great Wisdom Queen. 2017. By Drime Kunga.
Gayley, Holly. “Revisiting the ‘Secret Consort’ (Gsang yum) in Tibetan Buddhism.” Religions 9, no. 6 (June 2018): 1–21.
Gyatso, Janet. “Down with the Demoness: Reflections on a Feminine Ground in Tibet,” in Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, edited by Janice D. Willis, 33-51. 2nd ed. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1995.
Jnanasukha Foundation’s videos and information about Tsogyel Latso and Temple: https://vimeo.com/showcase/tsogyallatso
Jacoby, Sarah. “To be or not to be Celibate: Morality and Consort Practices According to the Treasure Revealer Sera Khandro’s (1892-1940) Auto/biographical Writings,” in Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and Their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas, edited by Sarah Jacoby and Antonio Terrone, 37-71. Leiden: Brill, 2009b.
Liang, Jue:
Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Life, Lives, and Afterlife of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel. PhD, University of Virginia, 2020.
The Uneasy Dialogue between Buddhism and Feminism, Buddha Dharma (2019). Review of Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities, edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo.
Gender in Translating Devotional Verse (2018 Lotsawa Translation Workshop)
Tomlin, Adele:
Yeshe Tsogyel’s Descent to the Hell Realms and How She Got Her Name
‘Yeshe Tsogyel Guru Yoga’ by 15th Karmapa
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 