Welcome to the Wiki for Women in Buddhism

This Wiki features multimedia biographies of contemporary Buddhist women from Asia and America.

Created by students at the University of Colorado, Boulder in RLST 3820: Women in Buddhism, Fall 2008.

                          Dhammananda

                    Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, formerly Dr, Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, (an accomplished Buddhist scholar, author and university lecturer),

became the first Thai woman to recieve full ordination as Theravadin nun in 2003.  

Janice Willis

Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion Department at Wesleyan University,

Janice D. Willis is considered one of the earliest scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

      Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Prize winner under house arrest,

is the Buddhist leader of the National Democratic League in Burma (Union of Myanmar). 

   Joan Halifax

Roshi Joan Halifax is a Zen Master and founder of the Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico.

She mainly focuses on the subjects of death, dying, and compassion.

  Khandro Rinpoche

Daughter of the Mindrolling Trichen, Khandro Rinpoche teaches in the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Dipa Ma

Dipa-Ma was a strong housewife who overcame many struggles

within her family through meditation and later through through her teachings. 

Tsultrim Allione

One of the first American women to be ordained as a Tibetan nun in 1970 by the 16th Karmapa.

Founder of the Tara Mandala retreat center in Colorado.

   Sister Mai

Sister Mai was a martyr for the Buddhist faith, sacrificing her life to promote peace during the Vietnam War.

In doing this she enhanced the status of women during her time.

   Ruth Denison

Ruth Denison was born and raised in Germany.  She immigrated to the United States in 1956.  It was there that she became the first Buddhist teacher to lead an all-women's retreat in meditation. Her Vipassana Center in California is called the Dhamma Dena Desert. 

 Jetsun Kushok

It is said that Tibet has always had many accomplished female Buddhist practitioners, but out of modest, few have emerged as prominent teachers. Jestsun Kushok Chimey Luding is one of the most respected female teachers of Tibetan Buddhism today.

  Madhumaya

This is an image of Sujata, offering milk-rice to the Buddha, a potent symbol for the dalit women's movement, Sujata's army, led by Madhumaya.

          SAMPLE BY THE PROFESSOR: 

   Khandro Tāre Lhamo

The Tibetan woman, Khandro Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002), played a significant role in the Buddhist revival in Golok beginning in the 1980s.