1. Freda Bedi was jailed in British India as a supporter of Indian nationalism and was the first Western woman to take full ordination in Tibetan Buddhism.
21 Facts About Freda Bedi
1. 2.
Freda Bedi's father served in the First World War and was enrolled in the Machine Guns Corps.
3.
Freda Bedi was killed in northern France on 14 April 1918.
4.
Freda Bedi studied at Hargrave House and then at Parkfields Cedars School, both in Derby.
5.
Freda Bedi spent several months studying at a school in Rheims in northern France.
6.
Freda Bedi succeeded in gaining admission to St Hugh's College, Oxford to study French, being awarded an Exhibition or minor scholarship.
7.
At Oxford, Freda Bedi Houlston changed her subject from French to Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
8.
Freda Bedi met her husband Baba Pyare Lal "BPL" Bedi, an Indian from Lahore, in her PPE course.
9.
Freda Bedi was a Sikh whose family traced back to Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
10.
All three women graduated with a third-class degree; Freda Bedi's husband got a fourth-class degree.
11.
Freda Bedi worked as a journalist and taught English at a women's college in Lahore, and with her husband published a high quality quarterly review "Contemporary India".
12.
Freda Bedi regularly contributed articles to Lahore's main nationalist daily, The Tribune.
13.
Freda Bedi joined a women's militia for a while and taught English at a newly established women's college in Srinagar in Kashmir.
14.
Freda Bedi briefly served as a member of the United Nations Social Services Planning Commission to Burma, during which she was first exposed to Buddhism, which quickly became the defining aspect of her life.
15.
Freda Bedi became an observant Tibetan Buddhist and she followed the guidance of the 16th Karmapa of the Kagyu School.
16.
Freda Bedi worked, with the support of the Dalai Lama, to establish the Young Lamas Home School.
17.
Freda Bedi initially set up the Young Lama's School in Delhi but after a short period it was moved to Dalhousie.
18.
Freda Bedi was one of the first Western women to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism.
19.
Freda Bedi accompanied the Karmapa on his first visit to the West in 1974, a landmark five-month tour across North America and Europe.
20.
Freda Bedi is credited for bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West.
21.
Freda Bedi was survived by two sons, Ranga Bedi, who was a tea planter, and Kabir Bedi, a Hollywood and Bollywood film and TV star, who was born in Lahore in 1946; a daughter, Gulhima, who was born in Srinagar in 1949, now lives in the United States.