The Tibetan Nun Mingyur Peldroen: A Woman of Power and Privilege

Mingyur Peldrön, a Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher, was born to a powerful family and educated at the Mindröling Monastery. She overcame adversity to play a central role in the reconstruction of her religious community, challenging the dominant paradigms of women in religious life and illuminating the relationships between the Geluk and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 242 pages
Publication date: 30 August 2022
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Born into a powerful family and receiving her education at the esteemed Mindröling Monastery, the Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher Mingyur Peldrön (1699–1769) utilized her privileged status to overcome significant challenges, including exile during a civil war. Alison Melnick Dyer employs literary and historical analysis, centered on a biography written by the nun's disciple Gyurmé Ösel, to explore how privilege influences individual authority, how authoritative Buddhist women have navigated their positions in gendered contexts, and how historical Buddhist women's lives are (and are not) memorialized by their communities. Mingyur Peldrön's story challenges prevailing paradigms of women in religious life and adds depth to our understanding of the history of gendered engagement in religious institutions. Her example serves as a valuable tool for better understanding how gender can be both concealed and asserted in the pursuit of authority, with broader implications for religious and political developments in eighteenth-century Tibet. In its exploration of Tibetan history, this study also sheds light on the relationships between the Geluk and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism from the eighteenth century to the nonsectarian developments of the nineteenth century.

The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Weight: 316g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295750361