India-based former Buddhist monk Tenzin Mariko is now a model, dancer, make-up artist and Instagram star after coming out in 2015
It was in 2015, at the Miss Tibet pageant in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, with more than 3,000 people in the audience, that Mariko came out publicly, and without apology, as a transgender woman. She is now the first and possibly only Buddhist monk – and Tibetan – in history to do so. As a result, she has been publicly and privately denounced, and physically assaulted.
Although she has been through a lot, these days Mariko stands tall and today is a model, dancer and make-up artist, and has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram.