Voices of the Ḍākinīs: Buddhist Women in the Tibetan Tradition

In this recording of Voices of the Ḍākinīs—KVP’s first collaborative panel event, hosted in partnership with the Ḍākinī Treasury Project—Holly Gayley, Sarah Jacoby, and Padma’tsho introduced the Ḍākinīs’ Great Dharma Treasury: the largest anthology in the Tibetan language of writings by and about Buddhist women.

The panel opened with the story of seven nuns from Larung Gar Academy in Tibet who traveled across the country collecting rare manuscripts, taught themselves to digitize them, and devoted years to preserving the voices of their Buddhist foremothers — resulting in a 53-volume collection spanning 2,000 years of Buddhist teachings by women. The conversation then turned to why reading stories about female masters matters, the specific challenges women face in Buddhist translation and scholarship, and the intergenerational dimension of passing down wisdom across traditions.

The session was moderated by KVP editor Amelia Hall, with KVP translator Heidi Nevin joining the panel.