Sarah Elizabeth Harding (born November 24, 1951) is a qualified lama and teacher in the Shangpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.[1] Since 1972, she has been a student and translator of Kalu Rinpoche[1] (1905-1989). She is the daughter of award-winning American screenwriter and playwright Isobel Lennart.
Harding completed the first traditional Kagyu three-year three-month retreat three day[2] for westerners under the guidance of Kalu Rinpoche in 1980.[1] Others who participated in that retreat include Richard Barron, Ken McLeod, Ngawang Zangpo (Hugh Leslie Thompson), Ingrid Loken McLeod and Lama Surya Das (Jeffery Miller).
Harding works as a teacher, interpreter and translator.[3] She has been an instructor in the Religious Studies Department of Naropa University since 1992[1] and lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two children. She is currently working on translations of Tibetan Buddhist texts as a fellow of the Tsadra Foundation.[4] Harding has published a book about the 11th Century female teacher Niguma whose teachings are at the core of the Shangpa Kagyu Vajrayana Buddhist lineage.[5]