Diane Perry was the twenty-year-old daughter of an English fishmonger when she converted to Buddhism and travelled to Dharamshala, India, in 1964, where she became one of the first westerners to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She remained with her teacher, Khamtrul Rinponche and his community in northern India for six years then, under his direction, lived in a cave at 10,000 feet in the Himalayas for the next ten years.
At her teacher’s suggestion she created the first nunnery for Tibetan nuns in India, and recently was given the rare title of Jetsunm, “Venerable Master,” by His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa Head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, in recognition of her spiritual achievements as a nun and her efforts in promoting the status of female practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism.
This book chronicles her extraordinary story, and includes an intimate conversation between her and the author.
This was originally published as "Tenzin Palmo - Like a Wild Swan" in Enduring Lives: Living Portraits of Women and Faith in Action, Orbis Books, 2013.
At her teacher’s suggestion she created the first nunnery for Tibetan nuns in India, and recently was given the rare title of Jetsunm, “Venerable Master,” by His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa Head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, in recognition of her spiritual achievements as a nun and her efforts in promoting the status of female practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism.
This book chronicles her extraordinary story, and includes an intimate conversation between her and the author.
This was originally published as "Tenzin Palmo - Like a Wild Swan" in Enduring Lives: Living Portraits of Women and Faith in Action, Orbis Books, 2013.
