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Thursday, March 21 at 12:30pm
*New Location* Denison Arts & Sciences Building
1080 Broadway, room C146

In this presentation, Professor Padma ’tsho explores writings on women’s education, health and equality in the journal Gangkar Lhamo, highlighting the voices of Buddhist nuns in an emergent feminism on the Tibetan plateau. Gangkar Lhamo is the first women’s journal edited by Tibetan nuns, founded in 2011 by the Khenmos (female cleric scholars) at Larung Gar and issued annually since that time.  What Tibetan nuns articulate in this journal is not the aspiration for full ordination, the most visible form of Buddhist feminism internationally. Instead, they advocate uplifting the status of women, both nuns and laity, through different forms of empowerment. As examples of this, Professor Padma’tsho discusses a selection of essays and poems on the topic of women’s education, health, and equality from Gangkar Lhamo.

Padma 'tsho (Baimacuo) is Professor in the Philosophy Department of Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, China. She holds a Ph.D. from Sichuan University in Chengdu and M.A. from Central Nationalities University in Beijing. She was an Instructor at Front Range Community in 2016-2017. She has published about 50 articles in several languages and two books. Her areas of research and teaching include Tibetan Buddhism, ritual, and culture, as well as the education of Buddhist nuns in Tibetan areas. Her articles have appeared in edited volumes, such as Eminent Buddhist Women, edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo; Voices from Larung Gar, edited by Holly Gayley; and numerous journals, including Religions,Contemporary Buddhism, China Tibetology, Journal of Ethnology, Sichuan Tibetan Studies, and Asian Highlands Perspective. In the last decade, Professor Padma 'tsho has spent time at several North American universities as a Visiting Research Scholar, including Harvard, Columbia, University of Virginia, and CU Boulder.