The Dalai Lama Is A Cisgender Man Yet He Has An Unexpected Connection To The Trans Community

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, turns 90 this week – a milestone that's reigniting speculation over his eventual successor .

While the Dalai Lama is the face of Buddhism to many people across the world, he is actually the head of just one tradition within Tibetan Buddhism known as the Gelug school.

Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama to be the manifestation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, and the“one who hears the cries of the world”.

Read more: What is a bodhisattva? A scholar of Buddhism explains

Avalokiteśvara is prayed to across Asia, and is known as Chenrezig in Tibet, Guanyin in China, and Kannon or Kanzeon in Japan.

A statue of Avalokiteśvara. Wikimedia , CC BY-SA

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person, or a mythic representation of a person, who denies themselves enlightenment until all beings can achieve enlightenment . Avalokiteśvara appears to living beings in whatever form could best save them.

Although Avalokiteśvara originated in India as a man, they can be depicted as either a man, woman, or non-binary being. This gender fluidity has led to them being revered as a trans icon in the West.

I have spent the past five years investigating the lives of queer Buddhists in Australia. As part of this research, I have surveyed and interviewed 109 LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Australians.

The words of these individuals, and my own experience as a genderqueer Buddhist person, reveal how the Dalai Lama emerges an an unlikely inspiration for individuals sharing a trans and Buddhist identity.

The Big Buddha is a large bronze sculpture located near the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Joshua J. Cotten/Unsplash Letting go of binaries

Through my work I have found LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Australians are generally reluctant to disclose their queer identities to their Buddhist communities, and may be told to remain silent about their identities.

For some, Avalokiteśvara's gender fluidity has been important for reaffirming both their queer and Buddhist selves.

One Buddhist trans woman, Annie*, told me Guanyin had special significance for her. Annie spoke about Avalokiteśvara travelling from India to China as a male, before“transitioning” to the mainly female presentation of Guanyin over centuries. Annie said:

Walter* has had a long fascination with depictions of Avalokiteśvara that“showed 'him' looking effeminate and handsome, with a cute moustache [...] A little bit homoerotic, a little bit provocatively gender fluid, as seen through my eyes”.

Walter adds:

As queer Buddhists, we turn to to Avalokitesvara to feel“comforted, safe and saved”.

Another interviewee, Brian*, told me about a Tibetan invocation practice he did with a senior Tibetan monk, in which he encountered Guanyin:

Since this experience, Brian has“always felt a strong connection to the feminine through her”. He has a special Guanyin altar on his farm.

You can't be what you can't see

Some Buddhists deny Avalokiteśvara's queerness.

Asher*, a genderqueer Buddhist I interviewed, told me about a teacher who said to them,“there was absolutely no way a gay person could be enlightened”.

Asher retorted:

The teacher dismissed this, replying,“those are just stories”.

A black statue of Avalokiteśvara outside a Japanese temple. Wikimedia , CC BY

In her 1996 book Transgender Warriors , trans activist Leslie Feinberg writes:“I couldn't find myself in history. No one like me seemed to have ever existed.”

Similarly, Annie evoked the statement:“You can't be what you can't see.”

I, too, experience this need to see myself as a genderqueer, non-binary practitioner of Zen Buddhism. It was only through doing these interviews with other queer Buddhists that I came to realise Guanyin, a trans icon, is a statuette which adorns the altar of the Buddhist group I belong to.

Knowing Avalokitesvara may be depicted as a man, woman, or non-binary being lets us queer Buddhists know we exist – and have always existed – within Buddhism.

Despite being a cisgender man who has been somewhat inconsistent in his support of queer people, the Dalai Lama, as the manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion, is a possible spiritual link between today's queer Buddhists and centuries-long traditions of gender transition and fluidity.

*Names have been changed.

MENAFN03072025000199003603ID1109754884