KARMA LEKSHE TSOMO

BIOGRAPHY

Karma Lekshe Tsomo is an associate professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, where she teaches classes in Buddhism, World Religions, Comparative Ethics, and Religious Diversity in India. She studied Buddhism in Dharamsala for 15 years and completed a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Hawai'i with research on death and identity in China and Tibet. She specializes in Buddhist philosophical systems, comparative topics in religion, Buddhism and gender, and Buddhism and bioethics. Her work includes research and publications in the areas of women in Buddhism, death and identity, Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist/Christian dialogue, and the western adaptation of Buddhism.

An American Buddhist nun practicing in the Tibetan tradition, Dr. Tsomo was a founder of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women (www.sakyadhita.org) and has helped organize numerous national and international conferences on Buddhist women. She is the director of Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org), an initiative to provide educational opportunities for women in developing countries, with twelve projects in the Indian Himalayas and three in Bangladesh.


BOOKS