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Gayley, Holly

Associate Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • Holly Gayley, Associate Professor of Reliigious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, is a scholar and translator of contemporary Buddhist literature in Tibet. Her research areas include gender and sexuality in Buddhist tantra, ethical reform in contemporary Tibet, and theorizing translation, both literary and cultural, in the transmission of Buddhist teachings to North America. Gayley is author of Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet (Columbia University Press, 2016), co-editor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet (Wisdom Publications, 2017), translator of Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of the Buddhist Visionaries Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo (Snow Lion, 2019), and editor of Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Tibetan Buddhism for the Twenty-First Century (2021).

keywords

  • Tibetan Buddhism, gender and religion, Buddhist ethics, Tibetan literature, religious modernism, minorities in China, issues of identity and agency, translation theory and practice

Publications

selected publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • RLST 2650 - Meditation: Ancient and Modern
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
    Explores the roots of today's mindfulness movement in ancient forms of Buddhist meditation. Topics covered include the array of meditation techniques in Buddhism, colonial-period origins of lay meditation in Asia, Buddhism's transmission to North America and Europe in the 20th century, the emergence of secular forms of mindfulness, and scientific studies on mindfulness and compassion.
  • RLST 3300 - Foundations of Buddhism
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Fall 2019
    Introduction to Buddhist thought and practice in the variety of its historical and cultural contexts. The course begins with an exploration of narrative, cosmology, doctrine and ritual in early Buddhism and the Theravada of South and Southeast Asia. Through case studies, we then trace diverse conceptions of the Buddhist path in Tibet and East Asia where the Mahayana spread.
  • RLST 3550 - Tibetan Buddhism
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2021
    Explores Tibetan Buddhism through literature and film, including sacred biographies, treatises on the Buddhist path and films providing a visual window into Tibetan life worlds. We examine different kinds of Tibetan journeys: moving through the life cycle, treading the path of self-cultivation, embarking on solitary retreat, traversing from death to rebirth and traveling on pilgrimage and into exile.
  • RLST 3750 - Women in Buddhism
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019 / Spring 2021
    Explores diverse representations of the female in Buddhist literature and the social realities of actual women in Asian historical contexts. Through case studies that traverse Buddhist Asia, we delve into monastic views of the female body, philosophical analyses of the emptiness of gender, idealized images of the feminine in Buddhist tantra, and contemporary issues such as the nun's revival moment. Same as WGST 3750.
  • RLST 4250 - Topics in Buddhism
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
    Examines in depth central themes, schools of thought and movements in Buddhism, such as Theravada in Southeast Asia, Mahayana and Tantrayana thought, Zen and Buddhism in America. Department enforced prerequisite: RLST 2610 or RLST 2620 or RLST 3300 or instructor consent. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours as topics change. Same as RLST 5250.
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