Professor Holly Gayley just published her first book, Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, with Columbia University Press. It came out in time for the American Academy of Relgion conference in San Antonio, November 19-22, 2016.
The book chronicles the lives and letters of Khandro Tāre Lhamo (1933-2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944-2011, who played a significant role in the revitalization of Buddhism during the post-Mao era in the Tibetan region of Golok. Professor Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China.