The Uneasy Dialogue between Buddhism and Feminism

Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities

edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo

SUNY Press, 2019 354 pages; $26.95

ONE SUMMER NIGHT in 2018, I found myself sitting in a small restaurant in Larung Gar, one of the largest centers for Buddhist learning in the world, slurping noodles and chatting away with a Tibetan Buddhist nun. I had been asking her about her role as an editor in several collections of writings by and about Buddhist women, about life as a nun at Larung Gar, and more. She asked me questions as well, mostly about gender in the US and mainland China; she was particularly interested in the history of the suffragette movement and in Roe v. Wade. At the end of our four-hour conversation, I asked her, “Would you consider yourself a Buddhist feminist?”