Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje (b.1892 - d.1940)
Sera Khandro was a mystic, mother, teacher, poetess, and Tibetan Treasure-revealing saint. Born in Lhasa to an aristocratic family, she fled the confines of a prescribed householder's life at a young age to follow her heart and fulfill her destiny in the wilds of eastern Tibet. Her journey took her from a sheltered and pampered existence in the comfort of her father’s home to experiences of intense hardship in the unfamiliar culture of the high pasturelands of Golok. Ultimately, she arrived at the joy of supreme awakening.
Sera Khandro’s connections with a variety of teachers, such as the Indian mahāsiddha Saraha, unfolded in visionary and earthly domains.  They punctuate the trajectory of her life with the profound instructions that led her to the warmth of practice accomplishment. The central and pivotal relationship of her life was with her prophesied partner, Drimé Özer, (b.1881 - d.1924) the fifth of the powerful Düdjom Lingpa’s eight sons. A Treasure-revealer himself, Drimé Özer and Sera Khandro nurtured each other as a Treasure-revealing couple linked through past lives, prophesy, and most especially, through deep love.  
Sera Khandro’s collected writings comprise eight volumes. They include extensive biographical material, pith instructions, philosophical commentary, and practices for traversing the entire spiritual path, from the preliminaries to the highest peak of Great Perfection teachings. Her main Treasure revelations are found in two major cycles: Heart Essence of the Ḍākinīs and Ḍākinīs’ Secret Treasury of Reality. She passed away at age 48 leaving behind some close disciples who maintained her lineage in small pockets in Tibet and who then carried it to Nepal and India in the time around 1959. Foremost among her heart sons, a direct disciple of this great ḍākinī herself, was His Holiness Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche (b.1913 - d.2015).
When she was in her early thirties, she reached a critical point turning point in her life when Drimé Özer suddenly passed away. Before he died he asked his heart son, the fourth Sogan Rinpoche, Natsok Rangdrol, to take care of Sera Khandro and bring her to Sera Monastery. Her name, Sera Khandro, reflects the importance of her connection to Sogan Rinpoche and the significance of the time she spent at Awo Sera. Her autobiography is one of her accomplishments of that period and for later generations of practitioners, it is a vitally important document.
The life, teachings, and sacred texts of Sera Khandro are available for us through the tireless dedication of Tibetan masters and scholars.  Among them, Sara Jacoby Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religion at Northwestern University, who has explored the life story of Sera Khandro in depth and translated her remarkable autobiography, available on Amazon.  For more information, click HERE.