Buddhism and Women: In the Middle Way

An important new study of the lives of some of the most significant Buddhist women in recent history. These include travellers, scholars, explorers and spiritualists, all of whose pioneering work have helped to develop our understanding of Buddhism today.

Buddhism and Women explores the fascinating stories of around thirty key Buddhist women from the past two centuries. These include Alexandra David-Neel, the Belgian-French explorer and Buddhist; Carmen Blacker, inspiring teacher and eminent scholar of Japanese culture, and Beatrice Erskine Lane Suzuki, American traveller and writer, who founded the periodical The Eastern Buddhist with her husband D.T. Suzuki.

All these tales are woven from the writings of The Middle Way, the eminent and longstanding journal published quarterly by the UK Buddhist Society. In addition to providing the individual profiles, the archive of The Middle Way also contributes a selection of poems by noted Buddhist women from the last two hundred years.

Buddhism and Women therefore offers a synthesis of biographical narrative and creative writing, animating the stories of these influential but sometimes neglected historical pioneers.