Echoes of Enlightenment: The Life and Legacy of Sonam Peldren.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation is an exploration of the life and legacy of the 14 th century Tibetan saint Sonam Peldren (Tib: bsod nams dpal 'dren, 1328-1372, tentative) with three primary and interrelated goals. First, this work studies Sonam Peldren's biography as a piece of literature, seeking to understand how the written record of Sonam Peldren's life is shaped both by the specific hagiographical agendas of its multiple authors and by the dictates of the genres of Tibetan literature such as religious biography and songs of realization (Tib: mgur.) Second, this study considers Sonam Peldren's biography and her enduring historical legacy as a piece of Tibetan social history capable of providing unparalleled insights into the social and textual machinations of saint production. Finally, this dissertation uses sources about Sonam Peldren to study one of the earliest recorded instances of an historical Tibetan woman successfully using the uniquely Tibetan hermeneutic of deity emanation to legitimize her religious claims. "Chapter One: The Life of Sonam Peldren" relates the narrative of Sonam Peldren's life story. "Chapter Two: Composing the Life of Sonam Peldren" engages the biography in close literary analysis, concluding that although the text contains a description of itself as the written record of a single narrator's voice, the text is more likely a multi-authored document, composed over time, that reflects both Sonam Peldren and her community's evolving articulation of the saint's identity. "Chapter Three: The Religion of Sonam Peldren" focuses on the "religion" of Sonam Peldren, examining Sonam Peldren's conspicuous lack of religious training and lineage affiliation, before surveying the biography's explicit and implied references to religious rhetoric, practices and rituals. "Chapter Four: Gender and Religious Narratives in the Biography of Sonam Peldren" explores how Tibetan narratives on gender likely influenced both subject and scribes' articulations of identity and religious vocation, and examines Sonam Peldren's comments on and interpretations of her female body as an authoritative vehicle for the transmission of the dharma. "Chapter Five: The Posthumous Careers of Sonam Peldren" explores the posthumous evolution of Sonam Peldren's historical legacy.