Machig Lapgi Drönma (1055-1145)

(Tibetan, Ma gcig lab kyi sgron ma). Great Tibetan female saint and celebrated tantric exponent of the Tibetan chöd (gcod) practice. The practice involves visualizing one's body being progressively dismembered by demons in order to weaken attachment to it. According to the traditional accounts, Ma gcig was born in India as a male and received the chöd teachings from the Indian master Phadampa Sangyé. Threatened by hostile Brahmins, he subsequently fled to Tibet where he projected his consciousness (vijñāna) into a female body, that of Machig Lapgi Drönma, and subsequently lived as a woman to the age of 95.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)