This interfaith event brings together two women who have each, in different contexts, pursued spiritual vocations despite significant obstacles. Students and faculty will hear their stories and so learn about the contours of women's religious life in two regions and two traditions: in Himalayan Asia and post-communist Eastern Europe, in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the Catholic tradition.

        Our Buddhist speaker, Geshe-ma Dawa Dolma, was born in Tibet and crossed the Himalayas as an eleven-year-old to pursue monastic training in India. She went on to become one of the first Tibetan women to attain the Geshe degree, the highest degree in the Tibetan scholarly tradition. Our Christian speaker, Sr. Ligita Ryliskyte, M.D., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Boston College. She is a Catholic religious sister, theologian, and cardiologist, whose story has included early life under the Soviet system in Lithuania, and Christian religious community in a post-communist reality.