The Female Principle

Noble Tara statue by 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje

Here I will post articles, research or texts 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.

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