Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002) was a female Tibetan Buddhist tantric master, one of only a handful of Tibetan female religious leaders whose life and work receive substantial attention in Tibetan literary sources. With her husband, the tantric master Ngawang Jigme (1944–2011), she was a leading figure in the post-1980 revitalization of Buddhism in the eastern Tibetan region of Golok. Together, Tāre Lhamo and Ngawang Jigme are at the heart of Holly Gayley's new book, Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet. Gayley's study articulates how contemporary Tibetan figures use Buddhist repertoires of literature, visionary activity, and interpersonal relationships to address the social and cultural traumas of the past seventy years, as well as the present-day exigencies faced by Tibetan communities within the People's Republic of China.
Tāre Lhamo and Ngawang Jigme were leaders within the Treasure (gter ma) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Visionaries within the...
