12 Facts About Tenzin Palmo

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born on 1943 and is a bhiksuni in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tenzin Palmo is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Tenzin Palmo is best known for being one of the very few Western yoginis trained in the East, having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born Diane Perry in Woolmers Park, Hertfordshire, on 30 June 1943.

Tenzin Palmo moved to India at 20, where she taught English at the Young Lamas Home School for a few months before meeting her root lama, the 8th Khamtrul Rinpoche.

Related searches

However, with the support of her teacher, in 1973 Tenzin Palmo received the full bhiksuni ordination in Hong Kong, one of the first Western women to do so.

In 1976 Tenzin Palmo commenced living in a cave in the Himalayas measuring 10 feet wide and six feet deep and remained there for 12 years, for three of which she was in full retreat.

Tenzin Palmo survived temperatures of below -30° Fahrenheit and snow for six to eight months of the year.

Tenzin Palmo emerged from the cave in 1988 and travelled to Italy as visa problems meant she needed to leave India.

Since her retreat Tenzin Palmo has taken on the cause of equal rights and opportunities for Buddhist nuns.

Tenzin Palmo is a member of the six member "Committee of Western Bhikshunis", an organisation of senior Western nuns supported by two Advisors from Taiwan – the Ven.

On 16 February 2008, Tenzin Palmo received the title of Jetsunma in recognition of her spiritual achievements as a nun and her efforts in promoting the status of female practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism by the head of the Drukpa Lineage, the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa,.