Holly Gayley & Dominique Townsend 
Longing to Awaken 
Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song

An indispensable collection of Buddhist devotional poems and songs




Longing to Awaken features twenty-five translations of Buddhist devotional poems and songs composed by revered Tibetan masters from diverse traditions and time periods. The anthology invites readers to experience a variety of poetic forms that embody a range of emotions, from grief and longing to skepticism and humor, demonstrating the ways that poetry can inspire faith as well as reflect the profundity and at times fraught nature of the teacher-student relationship. This collection gives weight to literary—not simply literal—translation as a crucial endeavor in the transmission of Buddhism today, one with the potential to raise the profile of Tibetan poetry onto the stage of global literature.



Featuring a remarkable interview with esteemed Tibetan master Jetsün Khandro Rinpoché to elucidate Buddhist devotion and a landmark essay by Lama Jabb articulating a Tibetan theory for translating poetry.

Tentang Penulis

Holly Gayley is Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of
Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet.
Dominique Townsend is Professor of Religion at Bard College and the author of
A Buddhist Sensibility: Aesthetic Education at Tibet’s Mindröling Monastery.