Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Anatomy of a Ḍākinī: Female Consort Discourse in a Case of Fourteenth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Literature

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Dharma Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the wake of the brave voices of the #metoo movement, Buddhist responses to sexual abuse have led to important questions about Buddhist sexual ethics and the female consort in Tibetan cultures. One issue raised by current debates is the question of who is an appropriate consort, a discourse that has historical precedent. These debates highlight the gaps left by the understudied history of consorts in Tibetan tantric communities. This research addresses that history through a study of female consort discourse in key scriptures of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) from the fourteenth century. The text studied is The Ḍākki’s Path and Fruit (dakki lam ‘bras skor), which is part of a corpus known as The Seminal Heart of the Ḍākinī. The scriptures are analyzed in terms of taxonomic discourse, interpreted with attention to structures of knowledge production as described by Foucault. It addresses the discursive transformations that facilitated the inclusion of women in the androcentric world of esoteric Tibetan Buddhism. Overall, the argument is made that this scripture sheds light on how knowledge of women and sexuality was constructed in a web of ever-changing, contradicting, competing discourses that reflect an ambivalent misogyny that simultaneously promoted and subjugated women.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Not applicable.

Notes

  1. Gleig and Langenberg (2020)

  2. Ḍākinī is a multivalent term referring to accomplished women, goddesses, spirits, protectors, and more.

  3. Jacoby, Love and Liberation, 189–190.

  4. Germano (1994), Architecture, 206.

  5. There are various enumerations of dates for Pema Ledreltsal; these are sourced from Germano (2000), Possession, 244.

  6. ‘od-zer, snying (2009), 339.

  7. ‘od-zer, snying (2009), 399.

  8. ‘od-zer, snying (2009), 344.

  9. Pollock (2009), Future, 954.

  10. Foucault (1980), Two Lectures, 93.

  11. Kandiyoti, Bargaining, 275.

  12. Quoted in Olsen (2016), Gender, 514.

  13. In the context of Buddhism in India, (1992). See Sponberg, 29, 1992.

  14. Langenberg (2018), Birth, 154.

  15. Langenberg (2018), Birth, 154.

  16. Germano (1994), Architecture, 270.

  17. Germano and Gyatso (2000), Possession 244.

  18. Germano and Gyatso (2000), Possession, 245.

  19. Germano and Gyatso (2000), Possession, 248, dates for Longchenpa are listed variantly elsewhere.

  20. There are numerous editions extant today which also include: sde-dge, a-‘dzom, rdzogs-chen shri-seng par-khang, bla-rung, and numerous digital versions.

  21. Foucault (2002), Order, 128–129.

  22. Foucault (2002), Order, 130.

  23. Gyatso (1998), Apparitions, 263.

  24. See Gyatso (1998), White (2003), Hatley (2016)

  25. Gyatso (1998), Apparitions, 305.

  26. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 84; White, Ḍākinī, 22.

  27. Gyatso (1998), Apparitions, 246.

  28. Hatley, Converting, 4-5.

  29. Gyatso (1998), Apparitions, 246.

  30. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 86.

  31. ‘od zer, snying, 369.

  32. Gayley, Revisiting, 2018.

  33. Kay (1971), Taxonomy, 868.

  34. Foucault (2002), Order, 81–82.

  35. Kay (1971), Taxonomy, 867.

  36. Kendig and Witteveen (2020), History, 40.

  37. See Zubin and Kopcke (1986), Taxonomy, 152.

  38. See Chonam, Guhyagharbha (2011), 469–473.

  39. Rab ‘byams, theg (1999), 298–305.

  40. Lopez et al. (2018), Passion, 10–12. In addition to the shared categories of lotus, conch, and elephant, this source also includes a typology of four types of males. See Vogel (1965) for another example with a typology of males.

  41. Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle adds a cow type and an ox type, whereas Longchenpa’s commentary to the Guhyagarbha lists six types: lotus, conch, patterned, deer, elephant and variegated. Rab ‘byams, theg (1999), 470–471.

  42. Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle posits an alternate classification of demon girls, god girls, naga girls, priestly girls, and the Indra girls.

  43. See Hatley, Converting, 10.

  44. Davidson, Indian (2003), 324.

  45. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 88.

  46. White, Ḍākinī, paragraph 8, 16.

  47. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 90.

  48. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 90–91.

  49. This could be interpreted as one who was previously a local guardian and reincarnated as a human.

  50. ‘od-zer, snying, 214.

  51. Cabezón (2017), Sexuality, chapter 5, paragraph 65.

  52. Powers (2009), Bull, 236 also notes hidden ankles in buddhas’ characteristics.

  53. Foucault (2002), Order, 174.

  54. Kendig and Witteveen (2020), History, 1–2.

  55. Vogel, Surūpa 18–21. The male types are classified as hare, bull man, horse man, and deer man.

  56. ‘od-zer, snying, 407.

  57. “Sex channel” is described in ancillary texts as something that protrudes and emerges from the genitals of female consorts and emits a red light sphere (thig le). This is an anatomical feature connected to tantric sexual techniques; the details of which are beyond the scope of this article. For a description, see Rab ‘byams, theg (1999), 300. The sex channel’s importance is definitive in another classification of consorts in the corpus that classifies consorts by the fitness of this channel. ‘od-zer, snying, 415–419.

  58. ‘od-zer, snying, 412; 413.

  59. ‘od-zer, snying, 412.

  60. Gyatso, One, 97.

  61. Cabezón (2017),  Sexuality, chapter 6, paragraph 68

  62. ‘od-zer, snying, 105.

  63. Foucault (2002), Order, 148.

  64. Foucault (2002), Order, 144, 146.

  65. mthong ba tsam gyis grib ‘byung. ‘od-zer, snying, 413.

  66. de dang ‘phrad na dngos grub zad/tse ‘phos mnar med dmyal bar ‘khrid. ‘od zer, snying, 413.

  67. de dang ‘phrad na dngos grub zad/tse la bar chad myur du ‘byung/od zer, snying, 413.

  68. reg-pa tsam gyis bde ba skye. ‘od zer, snying, 410.

  69. Foucault (1978), History, 71.

  70. Powers (2009), Bull, 9.

  71. Foucault (2002), Order 24–25.

  72. Foucault (2002), Order, 152.

  73. The Guyhagarbha represents Nyingma interpretation of Buddhist tantric MahāYoga scriptures.

  74. Chonam, Guhyagarbha (2011), 470–471.

  75. Wilson (1996), Charming, 17.

  76. Foucault (2002), Order, 27.

  77. Foucault (1978), History 26.

  78. ‘od zer, snying, 408.

  79. Loss of accumulated positive karma

  80. ‘od zer, snying, 411.

  81. nor dang longs sbyod snyan pa yang/de dag brten tsam gyis yang. ‘od zer, snying, 413

  82. See Changchub and Nyingpo (2002), Lady, xxxii.

  83. Gray, Cakrasamvara, 103, discusses the search for outcaste consorts in Buddhist India’s yoginī Tantra literature.

  84. Gayley, Revisiting, 6–8.

  85. Foucault (2002), Order, 150.

  86. Martin, Lay, 35.

  87. Germano, Possession, 241; Germano, David (2018). “Rise of the lotus, hidden treasures and Tantric sexuality in 14th century Tibet.” Lecture, University of Virginia. 12 Dec 2018.

  88. See Germano and Gyatso (2000), Possession, 244.

  89. For example, a familiar trope in tantric descriptions of religious sexuality, in which the consort is shared by both master and disciple as described in Davidson, Indian (2003), 198–199, 204, 222.

  90. Cabezón, Sexuality, chapter 5, paragraph 79.

  91. Asanga quoted in Cabezón, Sexuality, paragraph 82.

  92. ‘od-zer, snying, 364.

  93. khyed bud med las ngan pas mos gus byi pho la byed. ‘od zer, snying, 363.

  94. ‘od-zer, snying, 364.

  95. ‘od-zer, snying, 410.

  96. A point brought to my attention by Germano in 2017.

  97. Kandiyoti, Bargaining, 275.

  98. Foucault (1978), History, 101.

  99. Jacoby, Love and Liberation, 201.

  100. Jacoby, Love and Liberation, 230.

  101. Cabezón (2017), Sexuality, chapter five, paragraph 102.

References

  • ‘od -zer, dri-med. (2009). snying thig ya bzhi. TBRC W1KG4884. Pe cin: dpal brtsegs.

  • Cabezon, J. (2017). Sexuality in classical South Asian Buddhism. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Changchub, G., & Nyingpo, N. (2002). Lady of the lotus born: The life and enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal. Padmakara Translation Group, translators. Boston: Shambhala Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chonam, L., Khandro, S., & Light of Berotsana Translation Group. (2011). Translators. The Guhyagarbha Tantra; secret essence definitive nature as it is; Part One: The root Tantra; Part Two: Commentary by Longchen Rabjam entitled Thorough dispelling of darkness throughout the ten directions. New York: Snow Lion Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, Ronald. (2003). Indian esoteric Buddhism: A social history of the Tantric movement. New York: Columbia University Press. 194-201, 294-303.

  • Foucault, Michel. (1978). The history of sexuality volume 1: An introduction. Robert Hurley, Translator. New York: Random House.

  • Foucault, M. (1980). Two lectures. In C. Gordon (Ed.), Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings by Michel Foucault (pp. 78–108). New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. (2002). The order of things; an archaeology of the human sciences (Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines, 1966) New York: Routledge.

  • Gayley, H. (2016). Love letters from Golok: A Tantric couple in modern Tibet. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gayley, Holly. (2018). “Revisiting the “secret consort” (gsang yum) in Tibetan Buddhism.” In Religions 2018, 9, 179.

  • Germano, David. (1994). Architecture and absence in the secret Tantric history of the Great Perfection. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Donald S. Lopez Jr., Editor. vol 17, Number 2, Winter 1994. 203-336.

  • Germano, David F. with Janet Gyatso. (2000). “Longchenpa and the Possessions of Dakinīs.” Tantra in Practice, edited by David White, Princeton University Press. 241-265.

  • Gleig, Ann and Amy Langenberg. (2020) CRPL seminar series: ‘From Sudinna to the Sangha Sutra: Classical and contemporary Buddhist responses to sexual misconduct’ – Oct, 2020. Religions in Public. https://religioninpublic.com/2020/10/26/crpl-seminar-series-from-sudinna-to-the-sangha-sutra-classical-and-contemporary-buddhist-responses-to-sexual-misconduct-oct-2020/#more-1704 Accessed 15 Nov 2020.

  • Gray, D. (2007). Cakrasamvara Tantra: The discourse of Śrī Heruka; a study and annotated translation. New York: The American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York and Columbia University’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House US.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyatso, J. (1998). Apparitions of the self; the secret autobiographies of a Tibetan visionary. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gyatso, Janet. (2003). One plus one makes three: Buddhist gender, monasticism, and the law of the non-excluded middle. In History of religions, Vol. 43, No. 2 (November 2003) Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 89-115

  • Hatley, Shaman. (2016). “Converting the Ḍākinī: Goddess cults and Tantras of the Yoginīs between Buddhism and Śaivism” in Tantric traditions in transmission and translation, edited by David Gray and Ryan Richard Overbey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Jacoby, S. (2014a). Love and liberation; autobiographical writings of the Tibetan Buddhist visionary Sera Khandro. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jacoby, Sarah. (2014b). To be or not to be celibate: Morality and consort practices according to the treasure revealer Se ra Mkha’ ‘gro’s (1892-1940) autobiographical writings. In Buddhism beyond the monastery; Tantric practices and their performers in Tibet and the Himalayas. PIATS 2003: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the tenth seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford, 2003. Sarah Jacoby, Antonio Terrone, Editors. Boston: Brill. 37-73

  • Lopez, J., Donald, S., & Jinpa, T. (2018). The passion book by Gendun Chopel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandiyoti, Deniz (1988). Bargaining with the Patriarchy. Gender & society. Vol 2, No. 3, Sep., 1988. Sage Publications, Inc. 274-290.

  • Kay, Paul. (1971). “Taxonomy and semantic contrast.” In Language Vol. 47, No 4 (Dec, 1971). Linguistic Society of America. 866-887 https://www.jstor.org/stable/412161 Accessed 20 Nov 2002.

  • Kendig, Catherine and Joeri Witteveen. (2020). The history and philosophy of taxonomy as an information science. Switzerland: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-00337-8 Aug 31 2020. Accessed 15 Nov 2020

  • Langenberg, A. P. (2017). Birth in Buddhism; the suffering fetus and female freedom. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Langenberg, Amy Paris. (2018). “Buddhism and sexuality,” The Oxford handbook of Buddhist ethics. Daniel Cozort and James Mark Shields eds. New York: Oxford University Press. 567-591.

  • Olsen, Torjer A. (2016). Gender and/in indigenous methodologies: On trouble and harmony in indigenous studies. In Ethnicities 2017;17(4):509-525. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796816673089 Accessed 10 Nov 2020.

  • Pollock, Sheldon. (2009). Future philology? The fate of a soft science in a hard world. The Fate of Disciplines Edited by James Chandler and Arnold I. Davidson (Summer 2009). In Critical Inquiry. Vol. 35, No. 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 931–961.

  • Powers, J. (2009). Bull of a man; images of masculinity, sex and the body in Indian Buddhism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rab ‘byams pa, klong chen (1999). theg pai’ mchog rin po che’i mdzod. In mdzod bdun. dpal yul rdzong, a ‘dzom chos sgar: dkar mdzes bod rigs rang skyong khul. 298–305

  • Kuokkanen, R. (2015) Gendered violence and politics in indigenous communities. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(2), 71–288.

  • Schacht SP, Atchison PH. (1993). Heterosexual instrumentalism: Past and future directions. Feminism & Psychology, 3(1), 37–53.

  • Serbaeva, O. (2013).  Can encounters with yoginīs in the Jayadrathayāmala be described as possession? In: ‘Yoginī’ in South Asia: Interdisciplinary approaches, (Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy Series, 9). István Keul, Editor. London and New York: Routledge. 198–212

  • Shaw, M. (1995). Passionate enlightenment. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

  • Simmer-Brown, J. (2002). Dakini’s warm breath: The feminine principle in Tibetan Buddhism. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications.

  • Sponberg, Alan. (1992) Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine in Early Buddhism. Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender. José Ignacio Cabezón, Editor. New York: State University of New York Press.

  • Vogel, Claus. (2015). Surūpa’s Kāmaśāstra An erotic treatise in the Tibetan Tanjur. Helinsky: Studia Orientalia Electronica. Retrieved from https://journal.fi/store/article/view/49926. Accessed 10 Nov 2020.

  • White, D. G. (2003). Kiss of the Yogini: “Tantric sex” in its South Asian contexts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • White, D. G. (2013). Dakinı, Yogini, Pairika, Strix: Adventures in comparative demonology. Southeast Review of Asian Studies, 35(2013), 7–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis, J . (1987). Ḍākinī: Some comments on its nature and meaning,  The Tibet Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4, A Special Issue on Women and Tibet (Winter 1987). 56–71.

  • Wilson, L. (1996). Charming cadavers: Horrific figurations of the feminine in Indian Buddhist hagiographic literature. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zubin, David and Kopcke Klaus-Michael. (1986). “Gender and folk taxonomy: The indexical relation between grammatical and lexical categorization,” in Noun Classes and Categorization. 139-180. Published online: 01 January 1986 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.7.12zub Accessed 15 Nov 2020.

Download references

Acknowledgments

Conversations David Germano, Devin Zuckerman, Chris Hiebert, Amy Langenberg, Ann Gleig, Kurtis Schaeffer, Janet Spittler, Steven Weinberger, and Chuck Matthews were significantly conducive in shaping my approach to this subject.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Funding

This research was conducted under support of the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Religious Studies Department, Ford Foundation Fellow 2020-2021, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Kali Cape

Authors
  1. Kali Cape
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Not applicable.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kali Cape.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cape, K. Anatomy of a Ḍākinī: Female Consort Discourse in a Case of Fourteenth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Literature. DHARM 3, 349–371 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-021-00094-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-021-00094-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation