Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism

Miranda Shaw's "Passionate Enlightenment" challenges the notion that women were marginalized and subordinated in medieval India's Tantric Buddhism movement. She provides evidence of the independent female founders and their creative role in shaping the movement's vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 07 June 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

The now-classic exploration of the role of women and the feminine in Buddhist Tantra is a profound cultural achievement of medieval India, known in the West primarily for its sexual practices. Historians of religion have long held that this attempted enlightenment was for men only, with women in the movement being at best marginal and subordinated, and at worst degraded and exploited. In her groundbreaking book, Passionate Enlightenment, Miranda Shaw challenges this notion and presents extensive evidence of the outspoken and independent female founders of the Tantric movement and their creative role in shaping its distinctive vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality. This Princeton Classics edition, with a new preface by the author, makes an essential work available to new audiences, expanding our understanding of this influential and complex tradition.

The now-classic exploration of the role of women and the feminine in Buddhist Tantra is a profound cultural achievement of medieval India, known in the West primarily for its sexual practices. Historians of religion have long held that this attempted enlightenment was for men only, with women in the movement being at best marginal and subordinated, and at worst degraded and exploited. In her groundbreaking book, Passionate Enlightenment, Miranda Shaw challenges this notion and presents extensive evidence of the outspoken and independent female founders of the Tantric movement and their creative role in shaping its distinctive vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality. This Princeton Classics edition, with a new preface by the author, makes an essential work available to new audiences, expanding our understanding of this influential and complex tradition.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691235592