Echoes of Enlightenment
The Life and Legacy of the Tibetan Saint Sonam Peldren
Suzanne M. Bessenger
Reviews and Awards
"Bessenger contributes to the growing subfield of Tibetan Life writing but also more broadly to the field of religion and gender. Scholars interested in the social construction of sainthood, literary analysis as a tool of historical study, and representations of gender in religious literature will find much that will be useful to them. Because of its general introduction and accessible prose, the book can also profitably be assigned, in addition to graduate students in the field, to graduate students interested in religion and gender in non-Buddhist contexts or to advanced undergraduates in a Buddhism and gender class. In short, I recommend this fine book and look forward to Bessenger's future work on this and other projects." -- Catherine Hartmann, Harvard University, H NET Rreviews
"Echoes of Enlightenment traces the once lost life and works of a contemplative woman in pre-modern Tibet. Through Bessenger's fine writing we have the chance to hear an important Buddhist voice, one that was clearly prominent and influential in its day, yet rarely carries through history's censored record. Sönam Peldren will become a well-regarded member of what is still a small group: Tibetan women whose stories, whose songs, whose brilliance were preserved for future appreciation."-Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Professor and Department Chair, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
"Bessenger contributes to the field of gender and religion, not only in bringing to light another female Buddhist saint from the Tibetan literary record, but also by capably analyzing complex representational strategies, ever cautious about what can and cannot be surmised from hagiographic sources in the absence of other contextualizing information."--Reading Religion
