Flying women are a common motif in the world's myths and religions. Not necessarily winged, these women elicit reactions of fear, fascination, and ambivalence, and in so doing reveal much about the perceptions of female power and sexuality through the ages. This work systematically chronicles the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, and art.

• Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I: Life of the Buddha
• 1. Rejection and reconciliation Part II: Parents and procreation
• 2. Mothers and sons
• 3. Medical excursus
• 4. Fathers and heirs Part III: Sexualities
• 5. Wives and husbands
• 6. South Asian Courtesans
• 7. Courtesans in Buddhist literature
• 8. Tantric consorts: Tibet
• 10. The traffic in women
• 11. Women, men, and impurity
• 12. Sex changes
• 13. Other lands/other realities Conclusion Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The wisest teachings of Buddhism say that, like all oppositions, one must move beyond gender. But as Serinity Young shows in this enlightening work, the rhetoric of Buddhist texts, the symbolism of its iconography, and the performative import of its rituals, tell different, and often contradictory, stories. In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of biographical writings, iconographic depictions, and ritual practices revealing Buddhism's deep struggles with gender. Juxtaposing empowering images of women with their textual repudiation, beginning with the Buddha himself who abandoned his wife; tantric courtesans who are considered necessary to male enlightenment with fertility rituals designed to ensure male offspring; tales of gender-bending gods and goddesses with all male heavens; Serinity Young draws on a vast range of sources to reveal the colourful, and often troubling, mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I: Life of the Buddha
• 1. Rejection and reconciliation Part II: Parents and procreation
• 2. Mothers and sons
• 3. Medical excursus
• 4. Fathers and heirs Part III: Sexualities
• 5. Wives and husbands
• 6. South Asian Courtesans
• 7. Courtesans in Buddhist literature
• 8. Tantric consorts: Tibet
• 10. The traffic in women
• 11. Women, men, and impurity
• 12. Sex changes
• 13. Other lands/other realities Conclusion Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The wisest teachings of Buddhism say that, like all oppositions, one must move beyond gender. But as Serinity Young shows in this enlightening work, the rhetoric of Buddhist texts, the symbolism of its iconography, and the performative import of its rituals, tell different, and often contradictory, stories. In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of biographical writings, iconographic depictions, and ritual practices revealing Buddhism's deep struggles with gender. Juxtaposing empowering images of women with their textual repudiation, beginning with the Buddha himself who abandoned his wife; tantric courtesans who are considered necessary to male enlightenment with fertility rituals designed to ensure male offspring; tales of gender-bending gods and goddesses with all male heavens; Serinity Young draws on a vast range of sources to reveal the colourful, and often troubling, mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• v. 1. A-K.
• v. 2. L-Y. Index.

'Our first encounter with these Tibetan medical paintings is filled with delight, wonder, and pleasure. Their boisterous colors, their exquisite detail, their marvelous array of subject matter, the often playful and energetic figures that people them-all these perceptions strike us at once. We are drawn to the paintings instantly but at the same time are beset with questions' - Janet Gyatso, from the Introduction. The first full set of Tibetan medical paintings, or medical tangkas, were painted between 1687 and 1703 and were inspired by Sangye Gyatso, Regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who was a great patron of medical learning. In a beautiful and unique artistic style, the paintings illustrate Tibetan medical knowledge that drew on medical traditions from India, ancient Greece, Persia, pre-Buddhist Tibet, and China, while remaining firmly rooted in Buddhism. Copies of the iconic images have been created in meticulous detail through the centuries and "Body and Spirit" focuses on a set of contemporary paintings in the traditional technique by the Nepalese artist Romio Shrestha and his assistants in Kathmandu. The tangkas illuminate human anatomy and the causes and effects of illness, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. Most of the paintings consist of rows of small human figures, animals, plants, minerals, houses, landscapes, and demons and deities, depicting the rich complexity of human endeavor: farming, animal husbandry, personal hygiene, marriage, sex, birthing, fighting, sleeping, studying, and meditating. The thousands of small and large images were designed to add visual form to the technical information: an eye-pleasing teaching aid for medical students. Laila Williamson is senior scientific assistant and Serinity Young is a research associate, both in the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Janet Gyatso is Hershey Professor of Buddhist studies at The Harvard Divinity School.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)