hi,
i am an under-graduate student studying at soas in the uk and am currently examining feminism in the study of religions. i have enjoyed studying sex and gender from both sociological and psychological perspectives in the past. i am a practicing buddhist and my area of interest at the current time is the history of buddhism, particularly of tibet and the himalayas.
i am aware that this area of history has almost completely excluded women from the historical record and i am interested in trying to do something to redress the balance, although it is early days yet! i am studying classical tibetan and hope to be able to go to primary sources in the future and attempt to 'recover' a more accurate picture of the history of buddhism in this region.
i think the history of buddhism in tibet may prove a fruitful area of research as there are a thousands of un-translated texts out there to be analysed and we already have accounts of a number of key female spiritual adepts, such as machig labdron. my first guess is that this may be an area of study where womens involvement has gone un-recorded, as opposed to finding themselves completely excluded from participation in the first place. i suspect that this will be found mostly in the non-monastic forms of buddhism found in this region. i have also heard that polyandry was quite common in the tibet of the past, so perhaps we can deduce from this that women may have had more power in other aspects of life as well?
okay, just wanted to introduce myself and say hi,
i look forward to being an active member of the list,
dan :)
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