Wendy Garling
About the Teacher
Why study with them?
Wendy has a BA from Wellesley College and an MA specializing in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a vajrayana practitioner and dharma teacher in the Lam Rim tradition; her root teacher was Venerable Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden. In 1976, she took refuge with His Holiness the 16th Karmapa and in 1979, after a first meeting in Dharamsala, began lifelong teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Pilgrimage has played an important role in Wendy’s life. In 2007 she journeyed with Lama Tsultrim Allione “In the Footsteps of Machig Labdron,” to sites of the sacred feminine in Tibet. In 2012, 2018 and 2022 she traveled to sacred sites of the Buddha in India and Nepal where stories of Buddhism’s first women arose. In 2023, Wendy led a pilgrimage of 25 lay and monastic women from Lumbini, Nepal to Vaishali, India, “In the Footsteps of Gautami and the First Buddhist Women,” retracing that sacred journey of 500 women for the first time in 2,500 years.
She is author of two books: the award-winning The Woman Who raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati, with Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Shambhala Publications, 2021) and Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life (Shambhala Publications, 2016). Wendy lives in Concord, Massachusetts and can be contacted at wendy.garling@yahoo.com.
Pilgrimage has played an important role in Wendy’s life. In 2007 she journeyed with Lama Tsultrim Allione “In the Footsteps of Machig Labdron,” to sites of the sacred feminine in Tibet. In 2012, 2018 and 2022 she traveled to sacred sites of the Buddha in India and Nepal where stories of Buddhism’s first women arose. In 2023, Wendy led a pilgrimage of 25 lay and monastic women from Lumbini, Nepal to Vaishali, India, “In the Footsteps of Gautami and the First Buddhist Women,” retracing that sacred journey of 500 women for the first time in 2,500 years.
She is author of two books: the award-winning The Woman Who raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati, with Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Shambhala Publications, 2021) and Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life (Shambhala Publications, 2016). Wendy lives in Concord, Massachusetts and can be contacted at wendy.garling@yahoo.com.
