[Buddha-l] Enthronment of Jetsunbma Tenzin Palmo; Womankind in Spirituality

[Margaret Gouin]

The 'enthronement' being referred to is apparently the giving of the title
'Jetsunma' (Venerable Master) to Tenzin Palmo: see
http://www.drukpa.org/news/2007/071124_JetsunmaTenzinPalmo.html

As someone else has already noted on the list, Tenzin Palmo was the subject
of Vicki MacKenzie's biography 'A Cave in the Snow'. She has also produced a
book of her own--transcriptions from various Dharma talks--'Reflections on a
Mountain Lake'. In 1994 she gained some media prominence by reducing the
Dalai Lama to tears at a seminar on Western practitioners of Dharma, by her
impassioned pleading for more support for monastics in the West. She is, I
understand, one of the most highly respected (by Tibetans) Western-born
Tibetan Buddhist monastics alive, largely because of her commitment to her
practice and also to her guru.

She is working to restore the togden-ma lineage (female yogins) of the
Drukpa Kagyu lineage and to educate Tibetan Buddhist nuns, via her monastery
at Dongyu Gatsal.

A truly remarkable woman, by any standards at all.


On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 7:35 PM, jkirk <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:

> X-POSTED--
> Never heard of this nun--sounds like some kind of progress.
> But 12 years in a....... tub??
> Joanna
> ==============================
> H-ASIA
> March 6, 2008
> A small step for Tenzin Palmo, a Greap Leap for Womankind in Spirituality:
> Jetsunbma Tenzin Palmo enthronement announcement
> ************************************************************************
> From: joan stanley-baker <gaeapanda at gmail.com>
> this Tibetan Buddhist tradition used to have women priestesses up till the
> fourteenth century, I believe when their authority was slowly removed
> shred
> by shred till they are not even given literacy in the recent centuries but
> used only to serve tea
> I am happy to bring this triumph to the list.  It has been a very long
> struggle, for this English Buddhist nun who sat for 12 years in a tub high
> up in the Himalayas... to arrive at the honoured place given her here...
> What she seeks is women's rights in spiritual practice and attainment, and
> slowly, step by tiny step she is getting there.
> Check her website http://www.gatsal.org/
> Here just to share a soft hurrahhh...
> An email contact is dongyu gatsal <dgl.nunnery at yahoo.com>
> Joan
> Joan Stanley-Baker MLitt DPhil Oxon
> Emeritus Professor, Tainan National University of the Arts #15, Lane 6
> DaHeng Road,Yangmingshan, Shilin, Taipei 11191 ROC
> T 02 2861 6873   F  02 2861-5595
> C 0928370357  E gaeapanda at gmail.com
> http://www.artouch.com/space/
> http://61.219.169.5/joan/en_main.htm
>
> Margaret Gouin
PhD Candidate
Centre for Buddhist Studies
University of Bristol (UK)