Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo on Finding a Way: 30 Years of Buddhist Nuns Stepping Up in the World

Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo shares about her work in an interview with Center Advisory Council Member Steve Wilhelm. Since 2000 Ven. Tsomo is a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego and has been a beacon of hope for women within the Buddhist tradition. Through respecting tradition and also pushing on new interpretations she has made inspiring headway for the rights of Buddhist nuns within the faith. 

Tsomo has advocated for the welfare of Buddhist nuns since the 1970s, "We want to give space for Buddhist women in different countries and cultures to establish their own goals."

Karma Lekshe Tsomo offers classes in Buddhist Thought and Culture, World Religions, Comparative Religious Ethics, Religious and Political Identities in the Global Community and Negotiating Religious Diversity in India. Her research interests include women in Buddhism, death and dying, Buddhist feminist ethics, Buddhism and bioethics, religion and politics, Buddhist social ethics and Buddhist transnationalism. She integrates scholarship and social activism through the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and Jamyang Foundation, an innovative education project for women in developing countries, with 15 schools in the Indian Himalayas, Bangladesh and Laos. 

Listen now: Finding a Way: 30 Years of Buddhist Nuns Stepping Up in the World 

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