Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun by Kurtis SchaefferReview by: Hanna HavnevikJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 126, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 2006), pp. 105-108Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20064457 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 21:53

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.78.49 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:53:48 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews of Books 105

Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. By Kurtis Schaeffer. New York: Ox

ford University Press, 2004. Pp. viii + 220. $42.

In Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun, Kurtis Schaeffer translates, contex

tualizes, and analyzes what is most likely the earliest female religious autobiography in Tibetan lit

erature; it is also a rare document in Buddhist literature. Women in premodern Buddhist societies did

not?as a rule?write, and particularly not about their own lives. While Tibetan literature abounds with

biographical literature authored by men?we know of several thousand male religious biographies

and around 150 autobiographies so far?less than a handful of religious autobiographies by women

have come to light.

After a short introduction, Schaeffer divides his work into two parts. The first, entitled "The

Buddhist Himalaya of Orgyan Chokyi," has a fivefold thematic subdivision discussing first the re

ligious world of the nun, then Orgyan's life constructed as a religious autobiography, and finally the

main themes of the text, identified by Schaeffer as sorrow and joy, women's and men's suffering, and

finally religious practice. Part two consists of the autobiography, fifty-odd pages in translation, divided

into ten short chapters ranging from two to eight pages. Within each chapter, thematic headings have

been inserted by Schaeffer in order to highlight important events. The story of Orgyan Chokyi's death

(ch. 10, pp. 181-84) was added to the autobiography by a scribe or an editor. Three manuscripts of

Orgyan's life story have survived and are now kept at the Nepal National Archives. Schaeffer writes

that the manuscripts abound with orthographic inconsistencies, unorthodox and wrong spellings; the

style is rural and unlettered?far from the eloquence of central Tibetan male autobiographical writing. The life story is episodic in style and lacks narrative development; the scenes of each chapter serve

as vignettes of a theme.

The nun and female hermit Orgyan Chokyi was born in 1675 in Dolpo in the northern central Nepali

Himalayas; she died at the age of fifty-five, when a beam fell on her head. Orgyan's father, suffering from leprosy, was a short-tempered man adhering to both the Buddhist and Bon traditions; the text says

he was a scholar. The family was of humble origin. Orgyan's mother struggled to make ends meet in

one of the highest inhabited areas on earth, and she was furious because her daughter could not manage

simple household chores. The parents wanted a son, not a daughter, and took out their rage by beating the little girl and telling her she was incompetent. Only as a herder could Orgyan make herself useful

in the agro-pastoral economy of Dolpo. '

Orgyan Chokyi soon left her home to herd the horses for a local monastery, and among the animals

the unwanted child found comfort and solace. Having endured emotional and physical pain at home,

Orgyan identified with, and developed sensitivity to, the suffering of others, and domestic animals

became her childhood's intimate friends.

It was among nuns and monks that Orgyan found understanding. An empathetic senior nun advised

her to leave household life and join their community. If Orgyan did not, she said, her life would con

tinue to be. a misery; she would be tied year-in and year-out to corv?e labor. Since a career in solitary meditation was Orgyan's innermost inclination, she was well advised by her older mentor. Orgyan soon

became a principal followers of the lama Orgyan Tenzin, and although he was fond of his disciple and

imparted religious teachings to her, he also rebuked and belittled her.

When Orgyan wanted to write the story of her life, she was met by her teacher's denigrating words:

"There is no reason to write a Life for you?a woman. . . . You must be silent!" (p. 54). Orgyan

Chokyi disobeyed her teacher and sought authorization to write from female deities (d?kini). The auto

biography tells us that they taught her the skill of writing; elsewhere Orgyan says she learned to read

from a senior nun.

Orgyan Chokyi's life followed, by and large, that of religious seekers in the Tibetan cultural world:

she received religious teachings from male lamas, went on pilgrimage (Mt. Kailash and the Kathmandu

1. Around ninety percent of the region is above 3,500 meters. Currently the population in Dolpo is less than

5,000, and more than ninety percent of the population lives below the poverty line; literacy is low and life expect

ancy fifty years (Bauer 2004: 1-3).

This content downloaded from 62.122.78.49 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:53:48 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

106 Journal of the American Oriental Society 126.1 (2006)

Valley), meditated for years in solitude, and became a religious teacher. Two miracles are connected

with Orgyan: one was her divine authorization to write, the other supernatural events at her death.

When the hermitess was cremated, there was reportedly a great snowfall, relics were found in her ashes,

and, after the forty-nine-day mourning period, a rain of flowers fell all over Dolpo. Orgyan's followers

inserted her relics in memorial stupas, and her fame spread. The celebrations of local festivals in her

honor were observed in Dolpo as late as at the end of the twentieth century.

Kurtis Schaeffer has made an important contribution to Tibetan and Buddhist studies by making

this extraordinary autobiography of a female hermit in the Himalayas available for a wide readership. Schaeffer is well-read in Tibetan biographical literature, and particularly in the literature produced in

Dolpo during Orgyan's time. Through a study of several local biographical texts, the author of

Himalayan Hermitess presents a "thick description" of the historical, cultural, and religious life of

seventeenth-century Dolpo, the context in which Orgyan's autobiography was produced.

Schaeffer distinguishes between Orgyan's lived life and her life constructed as an edifying religious

biography; he is primarily interested in the latter. In his analysis Schaeffer draws heavily from scholars

of Christian hagiography, calling Orgyan Chokyi's text an "(auto)hagiography," and he does not dif

ferentiate sharply between Tibetan religious autobiography and biography. Schaeffer uses Donald

Weinstein and Rudolph Bell's (1982) classification of saints in the Christian tradition heuristically and

argues for categorizing Orgyan Chokyi as a saint, and thus justifies using the category "hagiography"

"the story of a saint's life." Although I am guilty of the same (Havnevik 1999), I have come to find

both the use of "saint" and "hagiography" problematic in a Tibetan context. The categories have con

notations appropriate to the Christian tradition, while Tibetan Buddhism has no system for canonizing

saints, and there is no emic term for "saint" in the Tibetan language. Furthermore, Tibetan religious

autobiography differs in a number of ways from Christian hagiography, since it is a genre that mixes

secular (auto)biography and myth in complex ways (Gyatso 1992; Havnevik 1999). Schaeffer is aware

of these genre complexities, but unfortunately does not deal with the theoretical issues involved.

Schaeffer structures his discussion according to the medieval historian Patrick J. Geary's (1994)

three-phase analysis of hagiography, which calls for situating the text in question in i) the hagio

graphie tradition within which the text is produced, ii) the total literary production of the hagiographer,

and iii) the circumstances that produced the work (p. 7). In order to follow Geary's analytic scheme,

however, Schaeffer has to build his discussion on religious (auto)biographical writings of Orgyan's

contemporaries. These texts were all written by men, and although Schaeffer attempts to position female voices in his analysis, it is a bit disturbing that much space is given to Orgyan Chokyi's male

teacher, Orgyan Tenzin, and to her older contemporary, the lama Tenzin Repa. The biography of the

paradigmatic model of all Tibetan hermits, Milarepa (eleventh century), is also frequently brought

into the analysis. I share Schaeffer's apprehension about generalizing about Tibetan women based on one female

autobiography and strongly support his objection to letting one woman's voice represent Tibetan

women from Yeshe Tsogyal and Mandarava of the eighth century to Ani Lochen in the twentieth. But

even though there was cultural variation from valley to valley and from region to region in premodern

Tibetan societies, we know enough about systematic and deep-rooted disparagement of the female

and of women wherever Buddhism intertwined with local cultural patterns to say something about

common themes. Schaeffer acknowledges that an earnest wish to portray the local setting truthfully

may easily end in particularism, but hopes that Himalayan Hermitess will be one small contribution

to a larger mosaic on which a social construction of gender in Tibet and a general theory of gender

in Buddhism can be built (pp. 8, 10). One part of such an ambitious goal would be a systematic and

comparative study of Tibetan male and female religious (auto)biographies using gender as an ana

lytic category. Until recently we have lacked religious life stories produced by and about women, but

research on a few such texts is currently being undertaken.2

2. Janet Gyatso is preparing a translation of the autobiography of Tare Lhamo (twentieth century); Sera Khandro

Kunsang Dekyong Wagmo's (twentieth-century) autobiography is currently being studied by Sarah Jacoby (Gyatso

This content downloaded from 62.122.78.49 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:53:48 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews of Books 107

Schaeffer's discussion of locality and context, literary genre, and women's writing in Tibetan lit

erature is convincing. He identifies suffering as one of the main themes of the autobiography, but no

matter how much I appreciate Schaeffer's Himalayan Hermitess devoting two chapters to existential

pain (sorrow and joy, pp. 69-83; and women, men, and suffering, pp. 91-98), the theme is discussed

in such detail and from so many angles that by the time I reached Orgyan's own words about her suf

fering (starting on p. 133), the subject was exhausted. Moving the translation of Orgyan's life story

to the beginning of the book could have avoided the thematic repetition of suffering and brought the

female voice into sharper focus.

The Himalayan Hermitess is eloquently written and a book I highly recommend both to the general

reader and to students interested in Tibetan religion and culture. In a book oriented towards a wide

readership like this one, it is difficult to strike a balance between the needs of the informed general

reader and the specialist. Schaeffer's book succeeds in this respect. I am impressed by the author's

knowledge of Tibetan literary culture, the numerous references to original sources, his command of

secondary material, and, not least, by the author's modest presentation of his knowledge.

In the main body of the book, Schaeffer has kept technicalities to a minimum; i.e., he only gives names of persons and places in phonetic transcription and the titles of Buddhist scriptures in translation.

In the notes, however, proper names are transliterated in order to satisfy the specialist. In the appendix

the author gives a list of people mentioned in Orgyan's autobiography, but here I miss a transliteration

of their names. Furthermore, it would be informative if Schaeffer had translated and discussed the titles

of some of Orgyan's female religious companions (see, e.g., appendix, pp. 185-86). Ani Drubchen

Soldrolma is an important character in the autobiography: she is the hermitess' mentor, and the appel

lation drubchen (sgrub chen) 'great adept' may signify a high religious status. Two other nuns in

Schaeffer's list have the epithet 'female adept' sgrub mo and sgrub pa mo attached to their names

(p. 184), and one female patron is entitled khandro[ma] (mkha' 'gro [ma], Skt. d?kini 'female deity')

(p. 185). These are important details, as we know next to nothing about these women's lives.

Schaeffer writes in his introduction that Orgyan's childhood name was Khyilong (p. 3), but the name

is not given in transliteration in the index, and we are left speculating whether it means 'dog turning blind' or 'blind dog'?from khyi 'dog' and long [ba] 'to become blind' or 'blind'. Tibetan parents

sometimes give derogatory nicknames to their children in order to protect them from evil spirits. Names

such as Khyikya 'dog shit' (khyi 'dog' skyag 'excrement')3 and Phakya 'pig shit' (phag 'pig' skyag

'excrement') are well known in central Tibet. Khyilong could be an example of such naming practice.4 In part two, however, in the translated text (p. 133) Kyilo is given as Orgyan's pet-name, and here

Schaeffer translates it as 'happiness dashed' (skyid log, skyid[po] 'happiness' and log 'to return').

'Happiness dashed' is a heavy name for a small girl to shoulder. No wonder she suffered! Possibly the

spelling of Orgyan's pet-name varies in the different manuscripts of the life story studied by Schaeffer.

One more thing: since few readers of Himalayan Hermitess will have visited Nepal or the remote

region of Dolpo, they will all miss a map where Orgyan's natal village, the temples, monasteries, and

hermitages where she worked and meditated, are marked.

Himalayan Hermitess gives us a beautiful, but also sad story. Orgyan's life shines, not because she

was an advanced philosopher or because she was a famous teacher or an important reincarnation, but

because local farmers and herders identified with her life and her struggles. They took her to be a true

and Havnevik 2005); Hildegard Diemberger is translating the first Dorje Phagmo's (fifteenth-century) biography

(forthcoming, Columbia Univ. Press); and hopefully the late Ngawang Chodron's translation of the seventeenth

century Mingyur Paldron's biography will be published in the near future (see also Schaeffer, p. 53). 3. A variation of the same nickname is Khyilu 'dog shit' (khyi 'dog' lud 'excrement'). 4. Name taboos exist cross-culturally; e.g., in western Norway (1700-1800) the order of children's names would

sometimes be changed in order to avert sickness (Helleland 1998: 390-91). Mao Tse-tung was also named Shi san

yazi 'the Boy of Stone' lest his given name Tse-tung 'Shine on the East' would tempt fate (Chang and Halliday 2005: 5).

This content downloaded from 62.122.78.49 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:53:48 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

108 Journal of the American Oriental Society 126.1 (2006)

religious adept, regardless of her gender. The role expectancy of a Himalayan nun is to spend her life

in hard manual work in the fields and in the kitchens of both her natal home and the monastery. Only toward the end of her days was Orgyan Chokyi allowed to withdraw to a solitary life in prayer and

meditation, and she triumphantly expressed her eulogy to freedom:

Now I do not have to get up at dawn if I do not want to. If I want to take soup, I am free to do

so when I am hungry. I am free to eat when I think of it. I can wear clothes on the path, and I can

go naked when I am in my cell practicing, (p. 170)

Hanna Havnevik

University of Oslo

REFERENCES

Bauer, Kenneth M. 2004. High Frontiers: Dolpo and the Changing World of Himalayan Pastoralists.

New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. 2005. Mao: The Unknown Story. London: Jonathan Cape.

Geary, Patrick J. 1994. Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.

Gyatso, Janet B. 1992. Autobiography in Tibetan Religious Literature: Reflections on Its Modes of Self

Presentation. In Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association

for Tibetan Studies Narita 1989, vol. 2, ed. Shoren Ihara and Zuiho Yamaguchi. Narita: Naritasan

Shinshoji. Pp. 465-79.

Gyatso, Janet, and Hanna Havnevik, eds. 2005. Women in Buddhism. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

Havnevik, Hanna. 1999. The Life of Jetsun Lochen Rinpoche (1865-1951) as Told in Her Auto

biography. Ph.D. thesis, University of Oslo.

Helleland, Botolv. 1998. Personnamn och social identitet. Handlingar fr?n ett Natur- och kultur

symposium i Sigtuna 19-22 September 1966. Ed. Thorsten Andersson, Eva Brylla och Anita

Jacobson-Widding. Konferenser 42. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets

Akademien.

Weinstein, Donald, and Rudolph M. Bell. 1982. Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western Chris

tendom, 1000-1700. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Indian Linguistic Studies: Festschrift in Honor of George Cardona. Edited by Madhav M. Deshpande

and Peter E. Hook. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002. Pp. xxv + 384. Rs. 695.

Apparently planned as a Sastipurti festschrift?an auspicious act in the Indian tradition?this tribute

to George Cardona's wide-ranging Sanskrit and general Indological scholarship came out just after

his 65th birthday, an auspicious date in Western traditions. Edited by two of his former students, the

volume features an impressive range of contributions, plus an editors' preface and a list of Cardona's

publications, which, fortunately, includes his important early work in Indo-European linguistics. Cardona's strong and highly productive and challenging focus on Sanskrit grammatical traditions is

reflected in the fact that three of the six major sections are devoted to this topic. The remaining three

sections are devoted to lexical studies, cultural studies, and modern Indian languages.

Section I, on Sanskrit grammatical theory, contains papers on post-P?ninian discussions of gram

matical terms and concepts. Topics include the issue of samj?as and paribh?s?s (James Benson);

sth?nasambandha or the relationship between the input and output of rules (E. G. Kahrs); later inter

pretations of the s?tra iko yan aci (Robert A. Hueckstedt); and an article in Sanskrit on a k?rik? of the

V?kyapad?ya (V. B. Bhagwat). Of special interest to a general audience is Saroja Bhate's contribution

on "Exegetics of Sanskrit Grammar," which culminates in the finding that there has been a "shift of

emphasis from practice to theory." Early commentators (Pata?jali and K?ty?yana) were concerned with

This content downloaded from 62.122.78.49 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:53:48 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions