Voices of the Ḍākinīs: Buddhist Women in the Tibetan Tradition

Khyentse Vision Project is honored to partner with the Ḍākinī Treasury Project on our first in a series of collaborative events: a panel discussion exploring the 𝘋̣𝘢̄𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘪̄𝘴’ 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘋𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘺, the largest anthology in the Tibetan language of writings by and about Buddhist women.

Published in 2017, this extraordinary 53-volume collection encompasses two thousand years of Buddhist teachings, life stories, practices, and advice, shedding new light on the history of yoginis and female deities. The compilers are a group of nuns from Larung Gar who traveled across Tibet, collecting manuscripts, teaching themselves the technical skills needed to digitize them, and devoting years to preserving the voices of their Buddhist foremothers. The collection includes biographies of important female teachers, the collected writings of visionaries such as Machik Labdrön, Sera Khandro, and Do Dasel Wangmo, praises to various ḍākinīs, and words of advice for female practitioners.

Today, a dedicated team of scholars and translators is working to make these texts available in English—both freely online and in a forthcoming ten-volume publication. This panel brings together Ḍākinī Treasury Project co-directors Holly Gayley, Sarah Jacoby, and Padma’tsho, along with KVP team members, for a conversation about the role of women in Tibetan Buddhism—as teachers, practitioners, visionaries, and lineage holders.