Queering Tibetan Buddhism through Vernacular Agency

This article presents the personal experience narrative of Tashi Choedup (Tib. bkra shis chos grub, ‘They/Them’, b. 1990), an openly queer Buddhist monastic ordained in the Tibetan tradition in India, as a microcosmic reflection of the interaction between a traditional Buddhist conceptualisation of gender and its adaptations to the contemporary understanding of identity. After introducing the classical Buddhist views of gender, I will briefly survey the current orientation of the Tibetan Buddhist leadership between dogmatic legacies and progressive openings. The personal narrative of Tashi Choedup brings a positive account of the ethical shift away from gender variance phobia, also exemplifying the role of vernacular agency in challenging the neatness of the religious institutionalised social arrangement.