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Main topics covered
• Introduction
• Gender in Tibetan society
• Women’s religious roles within Indian Buddhism
• Women religious roles within Tibetan Buddhism
o Women as lay patrons
o Women as monastics
o Women as yogic practitioners
o Women as tantric consorts (sangyum, kandroma)
oWomen as hereditary lamas
• Conclusion
Key points 1
• Tibetan women are more equal to men in social terms than
women in much of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh)
or traditional East Asia (China). They are free to move around
as they wish, have a considerable degree of personal and
financial autonomy, and are often openly part of decisionmaking processes within the household.
Tibetan women
Tibetan women dancing at Losar (Tibetan New Year), Bylakuppe, South India. Photo by Ruth Rickard, 1991
Key points 2
• Women within Tibetan Buddhism were treated as inferior in
many ways, and the situation here is only slowly improving.
• Women are nevertheless involved in Tibetan Buddhism in
many capacities, both as lay patrons and as religious
practitioners in their own right.
Tibetan lay women and ritual
Women carrying Buddhist books on their backs as part of a village festival, Yarlung valley, Central Tibet, 1987
Key points 3
• Tantric Buddhism in theory allows for a significant role for
women both as practitioners in their own right and as Tantric
consorts. The increasing dominance of Tibet by male celibate
monasticism has meant that women have found it difficult to
access the teachings, but a significant minority have become
practitioners, particularly in the Nyingmapa and Kagyüdpa
traditions. Women from high-status hereditary lama families
have been especially well-placed to receive teachings on the
same basis as men.
Tibetan nuns
Tibetan Nuns at Kālacakra Empowerment, Sarnath, India. Photo by Ruth Rickard, 1991
Key points 4
• In recent years, in part as a result of the involvement of
Western women in Tibetan Buddhist practice, there has been
increasing pressure for discrimination against women within
Tibetan Buddhism to be ended and for women to be given
equal access to Buddhist teachings.