Overview
Love and Liberation reads the autobiographical and biographical writings of one of the few Tibetan Buddhist women to record the story of her life. Sera Khandro K?nzang Dekyong Ch?nyi Wangmo (also called Dew? Dorj?, 1892--1940) was extraordinary not only for achieving religious mastery as a Tibetan Buddhist visionary and guru to many lamas, monastics, and laity in the Golok region of eastern Tibet, but also for her candor. This book listens to Sera Khandro's conversations with land deities, dakinis, bodhisattvas, lamas, and fellow religious community members whose voices interweave with her own to narrate what is a story of both love between Sera Khandro and her guru, Drim? ?zer, and spiritual liberation. Sarah H. Jacoby's analysis focuses on the status of the female body in Sera Khandro's texts, the virtue of celibacy versus the expediency of sexuality for religious purposes, and the difference between profane lust and sacred love between male and female tantric partners. Her findings add new dimensions to our understanding of Tibetan Buddhist consort practices, complicating standard scriptural presentations of male subject and female aide. Sera Khandro depicts herself and Drim? ?zer as inseparable embodiments of insight and method that together form the Vajrayana Buddhist vision of complete buddhahood. By advancing this complementary sacred partnership, Sera Khandro carved a place for herself as a female virtuoso in the male-dominated sphere of early twentieth-century Tibetan religion.
Full Product Details
Author: Assistant Professor of Religion Sarah H Jacoby (Northwestern University)
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9781322374000
ISBN 10: 1322374007
Publication Date: 01 January 2014
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Electronic book text
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.
Reviews
A detailed picture of the world of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the tantric variety, in the early twentieth century. It explores questions long in the mind of students of Tibetan Buddhism about how the arcane practices of tantric Buddhism actually figure in the lives -- and loves -- of real historical people, particularly women. A great contribution worthy of close attention.--Janet Gyatso, Harvard Divinity School
Author Information
Sarah H. Jacoby is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. She is the coauthor of Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience and coeditor of Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and Their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas.
