A dakini (Sanskrit: डाकिनी ḍākinī; Tibetan: མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་ khandroma, Wylie: mkha' 'gro ma, TP: kanzhoima; Chinese: 空行母) is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'.

The dakini, in all her varied forms, is an important figure in Tibetan Buddhism. She is so central to the requirements for a practitioner to attain full enlightenment as a Buddha that she appears in a tantric formulation of the Buddhist Three Jewels refuge formula known as the Three Roots. Most commonly she appears as the protector, alongside a guru and yidam, but Judith Simmer-Brown points out that:

The dakini, in her various guises, serves as each of the Three Roots. She may be a human guru, a vajra master who transmits the Vajrayana teachings to her disciples and joins them in samaya commitments. The wisdom dakini may be a yidam, a meditational deity; female deity yogas such as Vajrayogini are common in Tibetan Buddhism. Or she may be a protector; the wisdom dakinis have special power and responsibility to protect the integrity of oral transmissions

Lama Tsultrim Allione

is an author and teacher who has studied in the Tibetan Buddhist lineage. She was born in 1947 in Maine, in the United States, and given the name Joan Rousmanière Ewing.^{[citation needed]} She first travelled to India and Nepal in 1967, returned in 1969 and in 1970 she became one of the first American women to be ordained as a Tibetan nun. She was given her vows by the Karmapa, from the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, who gave her the name Karma Tsultrim Chodron. Allione gave back her monastic vows four years later and married. She has given birth to four children, one of whom died from sudden infant death syndrome. Tsultrim Allione continued her studies and Buddhist practice, which led to the 1984 publication of her book Women of Wisdom, a collection of the namtar of six Tibetan Buddhist yogini as Machig Lapdron (founder of the Chod practice), Ayu Khadro Dorje Paldron (1839–1953), Nangsa Obum, Jomo Menmo (1248–1283), Machig Ongjo and Drenchen Rema. This is the work she's most well-known for and it has since been translated from English into several foreign languages and expanded in a revised 2nd edition. In 1993, with her husband, David Petit, Tsultrim Allione founded Tara Mandala, a retreat center in southern Colorado, in the United States. As well as offering retreats at Tara Mandala, Allione regularly teaches in the United States and in Europe. In 2007 Lama Tsultrim Allione was recognised^{[by whom?]} as an emanation of Machig Labdrön.^{[citation needed]}

Prem Joshua (Hindi: प्रेम जोशुआ) is a German musician, active since 1991.

Born in Germany, Joshua learned the flute at the age of five and played the flute and the saxophone for various local bands. At the age of 18, he traveled overland to India studying the indigenous folk music of countries along the way. Joshua was the name his parents gave him, he later added Prem to it, dropping the family name, to remind him of the essence of love (Prem literally means love in Hindi).

On reaching India, Joshua learned to play the sitar from Ustad Usman Khan and Osho. Osho inspired him and his music. His website states that "In the presence of this man with a long white beard, eyes as deep as the ocean and a strong sense of humor, he came in touch with the art of the “inner music” - Silence. This was really coming home!"

Throughout his career, he has experimented with various forms of music, creating a blend of the East and the West. He has also worked extensively with other producers, making remixes of his own songs and infusing traditional Hindustani acoustic instruments with lounge and trance beats. His music has immensely contributed to the Asian Underground and fusion scene.

Michaela Haas, Ph.D, is a German journalist, TV-host, interviewer and documentary filmmaker. She has hosted numerous successful talkshows and political as well as cultural broadcasts in Germany such as Kulturweltspiegel (ARD), Unter Vier Augen (BR), WestART (WDR), Boulevard Europa (WDR) and others. She contributes regularly to renowned magazines and newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, GEO, Brigitte, and others. She also works as a lecturer and scholar and is associated with the University of California Santa Barbara.

In 1996, she published her first non-fiction book. Coco Schumann, the Ghetto-Swinger is the true story of a Jewish entertainer who survived the Nazi-Camps by playing for his life.

Michaela began working as a journalist at the age of 16. Curious about what it would take to become a journalist, she simply walked into the offices of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and was soon given a regular column to write book reviews and political features after school.

Immediately after completing her education as a journalist at the Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munich and earning her degree as master journalist from the University of Munich, she was offered the post of staff reporter for the renowned Seite Drei of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.