Wendy Garling has a BA from Wellesley College and MA specializing in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a vajrayana practitioner and dharma teacher in the Gelug Lam Rim tradition; her root teacher was Venerable Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden. In 1976, she took refuge with His Holiness the 16th Karmapa and in 1979 after a first meeting in Dharamsala began lifelong teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
She is the author of two books: the award-winning “The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati,” with the foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Shambhala Publications, 2021) and  “Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life” (Shambhala Publications, 2016). Wendy lives in Concord, Massachusetts and can be contacted at wendy.garling@yahoo.com.