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milk or the occasional lemon grass completely shattered and I became pantheon of deities and the pujas.
water. I thought I would starve for fearful. It was as if the earth moved In my initial stages of reading
the next ten days. In all honesty, under my feet. This new knowledge the book, I was actually quite
I initially detested the place, the was overwhelming but I studied the suspicious of Tibetan Buddhism.
routine, the kuti, the same food each Dependent Origination intently by When I finished the book, I felt
day and most of all, the mosquitoes! going through the drawings at the connected to Tibetan Buddhism
I wondered how could anyone ever hermitage that night and then all with a deeper understanding of
meditate on a hungry stomach of a sudden, I felt great conviction its basic philosophy and practices.
in hot weather and with a zillion in the Buddha’s teaching and came Also, it was around that time that
mosquitoes. I was running out of to terms with the reality of my I met Venerable Sonam Wangmo
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patience. I couldn’t even complain own existence. On the fifth day of from Bhutan at the 9 Sakyadhita
as I was observing noble silence. But the retreat, I went to the Buddha International Conference on
the anger was brewing. I was looking statue after evening chanting, and Buddhist Women in Malaysia.
for escape routes… but couldn’t sincerely took refuge. After that, I Ven. Sonam Wangmo had a
find any…I was in the middle of practiced meditation intently and monumental role to play in my
the jungles of Southern Thailand… slowly, the sluggishness, anger, becoming a monastic and also in
and facing the South China Sea! I irritation all started to fizzle away. my initial understanding of Tibetan
basically had no option but to go My mind became so pliant, clear, Buddhism as well as teaching me
through the motions. The first three light and peaceful, a state of mind the Tibetan language.
days were absolutely horrendous… which I had never experienced
with my anger levels skyrocketing. before. So joyful was the experience You ordained as a nun under
The yoga was fine but the meditation that I just wanted to meditate. At Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche in
(anapanasati) was dull. But I listened the end of the retreat, I silently Nepal in June 2009. How do you
intently to the dhamma talk as I did made a vow to become a monastic proceed to higher ordination
not have anything better to do. There as I wanted to spend the rest of my since there is no bikshuni order
was this old Ajahn who walked miles life in meditation. From that day in Tibetan Buddhism?
daily from the mother monastery onwards (Wesak 2002), for seven
of Ajahn Buddhadasa across the years, I made aspiration prayers There is a chance to pursue
national highway to teach us rowdy day and night to become a monastic bhikshuni ordination now in the
and entitled bunch of foreigners the and at the end of the seven years, in Tibetan tradition through Bhutan.
dharma in English. This was the very 2009, around Wesak, I ordained as a At present, only Drukpa Kagyu
first time I came into contact with monastic in the Tibetan tradition. nuns have been ordained by the
the dharma. I had been to Buddhist Je Khenpo (the first ordination
temples but I neither had knowledge But why Tibetan Buddhism when ceremony was held in 2022) in
th
of nor interest in the dharma. your main interest had been Bhutan. Also, His Holiness the 17
Theravada Buddhism? Karmapa initiated the Bhikshuni
Each day, Ajahn would teach us ordination process through a dual
a new topic…beginning with the My interest in the Tibetan tradition ordination system beginning with
Four Noble Truths, Noble Eightfold was also accidental. A colleague of shikshamana training. Although
Path, Karma and Rebirth and when mine gifted me the Tibetan Book the nuns in the Karma Kagyu
it came to Dependent Origination, of the Living and Dying by Sogyal tradition have not yet received their
I was completely blown away. I Rinpoche on my birthday in 2006 Bhikshuni ordination due to various
was horrified to learn that we are and I read it slowly but deeply for circumstances, I am optimistic that
the creator of our own suffering an entire year. Initially, Tibetan they and other nuns in the Tibetan
and that there is no true existence. Buddhism was not very appealing Buddhist tradition will eventually
My concept of a Creator God was to me as I did not understand the receive it in the near future.