འཕགས་པ་སྡང་པ་རྒྱན་གྱ་མཆག་ཅས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས notes.12

notes.12

12. The term phra men is one of two Tibetan translations of the word ḍākinī, the other being the more familiar mkha’ ’gro (ma). It seems the term phra men (ma) was used more frequently to render the idea of ḍākinīs as a class of potentially malevolent female spirits, while the term mkha’ ’gro (ma), while also used to refer to such worldly spirits, was preferred for the “wisdom” ḍākinīs in the higher tantras, in which context the term ḍākinī is better known to English-speaking audiences. To avoid such confusion (and also because we speculate that this text may have been translated from Chinese rather than from Sanskrit), we have chosen to translate the word phra men here as “malevolent female spirit,” since what is clear is that its referent here is a class of potentially harmful entities. See the glossary entry on phra men for further uses of the term.