YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL (YESHE TSOGYAL) (777–873) is a leading female figure and role model for Tibetan Buddhists. She is especially important for the Rnyingma (Nyingma) school of Tibetan Buddhism as a key figure in myth, dreams, iconography, and meditative practice. But she is also significant for Tibetans more generally, especially for her role in the stories of the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism in the eighth century CE.

Yeshe Tsogyal is said to have been one of the queens of the pivotal Tri Songde Tsan (eighth century), the king who brought Indian masters of Buddhism to Tibet and who built the first monastic community at Bsam yas (Samye). There are no contemporary inscriptions that mention her, and so there is some question about whether she is really a historical figure. But she appears at a relatively early point—by...