The Woman Who Raised the Buddha

The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati

By Wendy Garling
Foreword by H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

$18.95
SKU
9781611806694
- Paperback
Available
Shambhala Publications
03/23/2021
Pages: 272
Size: 6 x 9
ISBN: 9781611806694
Details

Nautilus Book Award Winner

Mahaprajapati was the only mother the Buddha ever knew. His birth mother, Maya, died shortly after childbirth, and her sister Mahaprajapati took the infant to her breast, nurturing and raising him into adulthood. In this first full biography of Mahaprajapati, Wendy Garling presents her life story, with attention to her early years as sister, queen, matriarch, and mother, as well as her later years as a nun. Garling reveals just how exceptional Mahaprajapati’s role was as leader of the first generation of Buddhist women, helping the Buddha establish an equal community of lay and monastic women and men. Mother to the Buddha, mother to early Buddhist women, mother to the Buddhist faith, Mahaprajapati’s journey is finally presented as one interwoven with the founding of Buddhism.