[Buddha-l] Enthronment of Jetsunbma Tenzin Palmo

[jkirk]

Thanks Chris for this clarification--I figured it wasn't a tub but some
special contraption designed for the meditation. Also thanks for the
description of her retreat chamber--a vernacular architecture of a special
kind. 

Would you please tell us how people on such distant retreats get their food
and water supplies; what must they do for toilet breaks; and don't they ever
get out and walk or do excercises or yoga? Twelve years of sitting-only
strikes me as counterproductive so far as health goes.
Joanna
================================



Hold on - Gelongma Tenzin Palmo has just been  given the title "Jetsunma"
which means something like "Venerable Lady" by the head of the Tibetan
branch of the Middle Drukpa Kagyu School.  While this is a great and well
deserved honour calling it an "enthronement" is rather over the top - and I
think Ven. Tenzin Palmo herself would not want anyone to think of it as
anything like that.

In 1974 I visited Tenzin in her cave (an overhanging rock with a mud wall
built round the front to form a small retreat place) which was at a great
altitude in the Himalyan valley of Lahoul - about an hour's walk from anyone
else. The year before her retreat had been buried under an avalanche and she
couldn't light a fire for weeks.

The "tub" may refer to the meditation seat she sat and slept in which has
wood on all sides so you have to sit upright even when you sleep - these are
about the size of a bathtub - but not as long.


- Chris


Jessica Marie Falcone wrote:
> :)
> Vicki Mackenzie wrote a book about Tenzin Palmo's many years in ... a 
> cave.  It must have been a mistranslation of some kind.
> 
> The book is:
> Cave in the Snow: Tenzin Palmo's Quest for Enlightenment.
> 
> Cheers,
> Jessica
> 
> X-POSTED--
> Never heard of this nun--sounds like some kind of progress.
> But 12 years in a....... tub??
> Joanna
> ==============================
> 
> 


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