Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born Diane Perry in England in 1943 and grew up in Bethnal Green, London. At eighteen she read John Walters’s The Mind Unshaken and recognised herself as a Buddhist. In 1964 she travelled to India, and in June of that year she met the 8th Khamtrul Rinpoche, a Drukpa Kagyu lama, whom she took as her guru.

She was ordained as a novice nun in 1964. She received sramanerika ordination from the 16th Karmapa at Rumtek in 1967, and in 1973 took bhikshuni (full) ordination at Miu Fat Temple in Hong Kong, as full ordination for women is still not available in the Tibetan tradition.

From 1970 Khamtrul Rinpoche sent her to Lahaul for more intensive practice, and she stayed six years at Tayul Gompa. In 1976 she moved into a cave at about 13,200 feet in Lahaul, a couple of hours’ walk from Tayul, and lived there until 1988. The last three of those twelve years were in strict retreat. She then spent time in Europe, and began to accept requests to teach. Vicki Mackenzie’s biography of her, Cave in the Snow (1998), brought her much wider attention.

Khamtrul Rinpoche had repeatedly asked her to start a nunnery. After his death in 1980, the 9th Khamtrul Rinpoche and the Khampagar lamas renewed the request in 1993, and she accepted. The first nuns arrived in January 2000 and building began in 2001. Dongyu Gatsal Ling, a name given by Khamtrul Rinpoche that her website translates as “Garden of the Authentic Lineage,” now teaches over one hundred nuns.

In February 2008 the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa gave her the title Jetsunma, “Venerable Master,” in recognition of her practice and her work for female practitioners. She has also served as president of Sakyadhita, the international association of Buddhist women.

Her books include Reflections on a Mountain Lake, a collection of teachings, and The Heroic Heart, on bodhichitta. She stepped down from public teaching in April 2022. She lives mostly at the nunnery, where visitors can arrange meetings in advance through the official channels.