How did you come to be a Buddhist nun?
Since I was a child I’d always wanted to be a nun but
since I wasn’t particularly Christian, I was always a bit
puzzled as to what kind of nun I could be, since the only
nuns I knew were Christian nuns. But when I came to
the Buddha dharma (teachings), I recognised that this
was the most important thing in the world as far as
I was concerned and therefore I wanted to lead a life
which had the dharma at the centre and with the
minimum of external distractions, or emotional
distractions, and it was logical to become a nun.Why did you start a nunnery?
My Lama (teacher) had said to me that they wanted me
to start a nunnery a on a number of occasions, but at the
time I had no money. After I left the cave in 1988, I went
to Italy for a few years. I tried going into retreat in Italy,
but it was disastrous; it was not meant to be. I thought,
if I’m not meant to be in retreat, then what? And the
answer was to return to India. When I got back to India
in the early ’90s the Lamas said I should start a nunnery
and I thought, yes, that’s what I should be doing now.
At the beginning I had to raise some funds and Vicki
Mackenzie hadn’t written the book about the cave yet.
It was quite difficult because you can’t go around giving
talks if no one invites you. In those days people were
interested in Tibetan Lamas and when I spoke about
nuns, basically the reaction was “Oh nuns... nobody
ever talks about nuns. The Lamas talk about monks.”
Nuns were really very overlooked in those days, and very
underappreciated. Now it’s much better. There has come
more realisation of the great potential there is in the
female. Nowadays nuns are far more educated and given
so much more opportunity for practice and are living
in much better, well-run, disciplined nunneries and
showing they are more focused and devoted and often
more intelligent than their male counterparts.What is your new project?
We are about to start something called the non-
Himalayan nuns alliance. The Himalayan nuns –
the nuns from Tibet and surrounds – on the whole
they’re doing okay now, they are being supported
and encouraged, they are in good nunneries, they are
studying and so forth. Who are not okay, who continue
to be overlooked, are nuns from Australia, America,
Europe and women from other Asian countries who
become Tibetan Buddhist nuns. People assume if you
become monastic you are going to be looked after and
supported and trained: it is simply not true, if you are
not part of the traditional background. In Australia,
there are many Australian nuns running Buddhist
centres and they have to do everything, including pay
the rent, support themselves, give teachings, raise
funds to bring in Lamas... The fact that these women
are slaving away is completely ignored. It’s called seva
(“selfless service”) but it’s exploitation. We have gathered
together a group of eminent Western nuns to try to raise
awareness and funding so that if, for example, a nun
wants to do a retreat or a study course they can.Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, 71, formerly known as Diane
Perry, was one of the first Western women to be
ordained as a Buddhist nun, in 1973. Three years later
she secluded herself in a cave high in the Himalayas,
where she underwent 12 years of intense meditation, as
described in her biography Cave in the Snow, by Vicki
Mackenzie. In 1993 Jetsunma began preparations to open
the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Tibet. In 2008 she
was granted the title Jetsunma, or Venerable Master, in
recognition of her spiritual achievements and her efforts
to raise the status of female practitioners of Tibetan
Buddhism. Her latest project aims to support nuns in
other parts of the world. By Tamsin Angus-LeppanNun’s the word
98 PHOTO: DONGYU GATSAL LING NUNNERY
may/june 2015yogajournal.com.auAYJ INTERVIEW
inspiration
yj43_98_ayj interview.indd 98 31/03/2015 11:10 am