A Parallel Degree Created So Women Could Hold It Too

For most of its history the geshe degree was, in practice, unavailable to women, since the extended philosophical curriculum and formal examinations it requires were taught within monastic colleges that trained monks rather than nuns, and Tibetan Buddhist nunneries historically lacked the same institutional access to the full course of study, so no formal path existed for a nun to earn the equivalent qualification regardless of her ability or dedication. Reform efforts over recent decades built specific nunneries offering the full traditional curriculum to female students, and in 2016 the first cohort of Tibetan Buddhist nuns was awarded the Geshema degree, a female-specific but academically equivalent counterpart to the traditional geshe qualification, after completing the same lengthy course of study and passing the same rigorous examinations previously open only to monks.

The change was significant enough to draw public comment from the Dalai Lama himself in support of it, and further cohorts of geshemas have been certified in the years since, though the numbers remain small relative to the male geshe population built up over centuries, and the practical integration of geshemas into teaching and leadership roles historically reserved for male geshes within Gelug institutions remains an ongoing and still developing process rather than a fully settled matter.