Aro Books was founded in 1994 by Ngakma Yeshé (Wendy Faith Megerman), managing director, sales and promotion, and Ngakma Shardröl (Andrea Antonoff), editor, typographer and book designer. Its inception occurred during lively discussions of Buddhism in the West with English Lamas Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. We perceived the need for a publishing house that would not be subject to existing conservative conventions within the Buddhist publishing world. The requirement of many such publishing houses with regard to Buddhism is either to publish simplified entrance level material or translations of Buddhist texts. They show no interest in presenting Buddhist inner Tantra in an accessible non-academic manner. It seemed to us that current publishing philosophies were not in sympathy with using modern English literature as a yardstick by which Buddhist writing could be measured. We feel that there is no reason why Buddhism should be exempt from literary criticism with regard to anachronistic sentence construction and clichéd usages.

Aro Books produces books on Buddhist inner Tantra written in fresh, creative, contemporary language; addressed to non-specialized audiences. We do address audiences without knowledge of Buddhism, but they must be prepared for some degree of challenge. Our target audience is interested in Buddhism but not drawn to participating in medieval Asiatic museum culture. We encourage a living tradition that addresses ordinary people but avoids the extremes of popularization and academic elitism. We do not wish to produce a diluted Buddhism for the West, and we also do not want to to cater to interest in hybrid fusions of Buddhism and therapy. With this in mind, we have set out to provoke an interest in the excitement and exuberance that lies at the heart of Buddhism.

The Aro gTér is a non-liturgical tradition, which is both ritually and mythologically minimalist. The ngak-'phang (non monastic, non-celibate) family style of the Aro gTér tradition is the fruit of a lineage of enlightened women that culminated in the visionary genius of Khyungchen Aro Lingma, the extraordinary female Lama who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She established the Aro Gar, a yogic encampment in south eastern Tibet. The Aro Gar existed from the beginning of the twentieth century until the Chinese invasion in the 1950's. It was one of numerous small family lineages, many of which died out due to the harsh exigencies of the exodus from Tibet. For more information about the Aro Tradition, please visit our website.

Aro Books intends to publish commentaries on the complete cycle of pure vision gTérmas of Khyungchen Aro Lingma. These teachings are surprising in their simplicity, vibrance and direct applicability to the heterodox complexity of our post-industrial society

Aro Books places its primary focus on presenting inner Tantra. To that end, we will publish works from other Nyingma ngak-'phang traditions such as Repkong; from the ngak-'phang traditions of the Kagyüd and Sakya Schools, as well as from the Bon ngak-'phang tradition. We will emphasize in particular the teachings and histories of female Lamas within all the Tibetan traditions.