Fascinating and compelling, this is a rare autobiography of a Tibetan female religious master. Jacoby combines pioneering research with high scholarly standards and delivers in a readable style a sensitive narrative rich in social, cultural, and psychological detail.
Hildegard Diemberger, University of Cambridge You will laugh, but more often you will cry when reading this first-ever study of a nonmonastic woman who wrote a Tibetan-language autobiography and a biography of a man. Sarah H. Jacoby's study of gender and sexuality is pathbreaking in the field of Tibetan studies. Because the main research materials were authored by a noncelibate woman, this book gives rich insight into one woman's conception of the complex social, political, and even medical aspects of tantric consort practices. Jacoby grounds Buddhist theory in the lived experience of an actual practitioner and illuminates this topic based on her fieldwork in Tibet. Her work reveals modern Tibetan history like never before-not by tracking political or institutional history, but through attention to the life of a runaway girl who transforms herself from lowly servant to famous teacher through her extraordinary vision of her life.
Gray Tuttle, Columbia University 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 A complex work, rewarding in many ways... this is a rare window into a world so different, and yet so historically recent... Jacoby brings lots of food for thought and fresh new ways of seeing the familiar. Sumeru: Buddhist Books, Art, & News Jacoby's book gives us a big infusion of data regarding what many of us have been wondering about with respect to sexuality and gender relations in Tibetan Buddhism, particularly in tantric communalities. Journal of the American Academy of Religion [An] outstanding study of the extraordinary autobiography of Sera Khandro (1892-1940).
Janet Gyatso The Journal of Asian Studies With this original study of one remarkable woman's life writing, Jacoby illuminates questions about renunciation, desire, and love in tantric Buddhist practice and opens the way for further study. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Many aspects of this rich and fine book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars. It can be used for courses on Tibetan Buddhism trying to avoid a purely doctrinal approach, in gender studies courses that favor a balanced approach between various feminist theories, or in comparative literature courses. Journal of Religion