Long ago, in tenth or eleventh century, legends tell of a Buddhist nun who came to be known as Gelongma Palmo. She was a princess from Kashmir who, due to her great beauty, could have been married to kings from neighboring countries but decided instead to become a Buddhist nun. Because of her aptitude for study, her teacher appointed her as a head of the monastic community. But the boons of her early life could not have foreshadowed the horrors she would have to endure.

Pema Khandro tells the story of Sonam Peldren, a Tibetan Buddhist yogini, who is the earliest recorded female tulku, a reincarnated lama. She lived in thirteenth-fourteenth century Tibet.