Deconstructing Demonesses: Tsepongza, Misogyny, and the Structural Implications of Telling Stories of Sexual Violence

Abstract

In conversation with survivor-centered discussions of sexual violence in Western Buddhist contexts, this piece examines the story of queen Tsepongza and her encounter with Vairocana to highlight the tension between key Tibetan historical narratives that construct women as demonesses in misogynist terms and the work of contemporary Tibetan female writers such as Jamyang Kyi that challenge such narratives and reclaim demonized Tibetan historical women as symbols of Tibetan resistance and survivance. While rejecting the logics of misogyny by centering Tibetan women's voices, this analysis cautions against interpreting stories of sexual violence in a vacuum, reflecting instead on the ways in which such narratives may be inevitably shaped by and reinforce specific historical and contemporary structures of power.