Love and Liberation reads the autobiographical and biographical writings of one of the few Tibetan Buddhist women to record the story of her life. Sera Khandro Kunzang Dekyong Chonyi Wangmo (also called Dewe Dorej, 1892--1940) was extraordinary not only for achieving religious mastery as a Tibetan Buddhist visionary and guru to many lamas, monastics, and laity in the Golok region of eastern Tibet, but also for her candor. This book listens to Sera Khandro's conversations with land deities, dakinis, bodhisattvas, lamas, and fellow religious community members whose voices interweave with her own to narrate what is a story of both love between Sera Khandro and her guru, Drime Ozer, and spiritual liberation.

Sarah H. Jacoby's analysis focuses on the status of the female body in Sera Khandro's texts, the virtue of celibacy versus the expediency of sexuality for religious purposes, and the difference between profane lust and sacred love between male and female tantric partners. Her findings add new dimensions to our understanding of Tibetan Buddhist consort practices, complicating standard scriptural presentations of male subject and female aide. Sera Khandro depicts herself and Drime Ozer as inseparable embodiments of insight and method that together form the Vajrayana Buddhist vision of complete buddhahood. By advancing this complementary sacred partnership, Sera Khandro carved a place for herself as a female virtuoso in the male-dominated sphere of early twentieth-century Tibetan religion.
Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro, Sarah H. Jacoby, Columbia University Press, Paperback, 2014, $42.00

Sarah H. Jacoby is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. She is the coauthor of Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience and coeditor of Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and Their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas.

Contents: Love and Liberation Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro
List of Illustrations	ix
Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
Technical Note on Tibetan and Sanskrit Words	xix
Abbreviations	xxi
Chronology	xxiii
Maps	xxvi
INTRODUCTION	1
1. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SERA KHANDRO	23
2. A GUEST IN THE SACRED LAND OF GOLOK	76
3. DAKINI DIALOGUES	131
4. SACRED SEXUALITY	188
5. LOVE BETWEEN METHOD AND INSIGHT	249
EPILOGUE: LOVE AFTER DEATH	319
Spelling of Key Tibetan Names and Terms	325
Notes	337
Bibliography	379
Index	395