Monjas budistas tibetanas – Los discípulos más resilientes del Buda

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Los conventos budistas, también llamados gompas, han estado históricamente bien establecidos en el Tíbet, ciertamente desde el siglo XII, con tradiciones que se remontan hasta el siglo VIII.

La educación tradicional en los conventos de monjas incluía la lectura, la escritura y lecciones sobre escrituras antiguas y oraciones, impartidas por las monjas mayores o lamas de los monasterios.

Las actividades tradicionales para las monjas incluían la realización de rituales solicitados por la comunidad laica y artesanías como el bordado y la costura.

Las tareas administrativas y de mantenimiento se rotaban para que todas las monjas adquirieran experiencia en la gestión del convento.

La ordenación de las monjas budistas tibetanas

Tradicionalmente, las monjas budistas tibetanas no eran «plenamente ordenadas» como bhikṣuṇīs (quienes asumen el conjunto completo de votos monásticos en el Vinaya).

A pesar de la ausencia de ordenación en el Tíbet, las bhikṣuṇīs sí viajaron a esta región.

Un ejemplo notable fue la monja de Sri Lanka, Candramāla, cuyo trabajo con Śrījñāna resultó en el texto tántrico Śrīcandramāla Tantrarāja.

Existen relatos de mujeres tibetanas plenamente ordenadas, como la Samding Dorje Phagmo (1422-1455), quien fue considerada una de las más altas maestras y tulkus femeninas en el Tíbet, aunque se conoce muy poco sobre las circunstancias exactas de su ordenación.

A finales de la década de 1980 y en la década de 1990, debido a las condiciones represivas en el Tíbet, un gran número de monjas budistas tibetanas escaparon del Tíbet y se unieron a las comunidades de refugiados en India y Nepal.

En la era moderna, las monjas budistas tibetanas han recibido ordenaciones completas a través de linajes de Vinaya de Asia Oriental.

Es el caso de Pema Chödrön, autora reconocida y maestra residente en la Abadía Gampo en Nueva Escocia, Canadá, quien recibió la ordenación monástica completa en 1981 en Hong Kong.

En este breve video, Pema Chödrön explica con humor cómo se convirtió en monja budista tibetana.

 

En 2010, se consagró oficialmente el primer convento budista tibetano en América, el Convento Vajra Dakini en Vermont.

Ofrece ordenación para novicias y sigue el linaje Drikung Kagyu del budismo.

El abad del convento Vajra Dakini es Khenmo Drolma, una mujer estadounidense, quien es la primera bhikṣuṇī en el linaje Drikung del budismo, habiendo sido ordenada en Taiwán en 2002.

En abril de 2011, el Instituto de Estudios Dialécticos Budistas (IBD) en Dharamsala, India, confirió el grado de geshe, un título académico budista tibetano para monásticos, a Kelsang Wangmo, una monja alemana, convirtiéndola así en la primera geshe femenina del mundo.

En 2013, las mujeres tibetanas pudieron presentar los exámenes de geshe por primera vez.

Lista de monjas budistas tibetanas prominentes

Esta es la vida y los logros de algunas de las monjas budistas tibetanas más prominentes, tanto del pasado como del presente.

Tsultrim Allione

Lama Tsultrim Allione es una autora y maestra que ha estudiado en la línea Karma Kagyu del budismo tibetano. Nació en 1947 en Maine con el nombre de Joan Rousmanière Ewing. Viajó por primera vez a India y Nepal en 1967, regresó en 1969 y en enero de 1970 se convirtió en una de las primeras mujeres estadounidenses en ser ordenadas como monja tibetana. Recibió sus votos del Karmapa, de la escuela Karma Kagyu del budismo tibetano, quien le dio el nombre de Karma Tsultrim Chodron. Allione devolvió sus votos monásticos cuatro años después y se casó. Ha dado a luz a cuatro hijos, uno de los cuales murió por síndrome de muerte súbita del lactante. Tsultrim Allione continuó sus estudios y práctica budista, lo que llevó a la publicación en 1984 de su libro Mujeres de Sabiduría, una colección de namtar de seis yoginis budistas tibetanas como Machig Labdrön, Ayu Khandro Dorje Paldron (1839–1953), Nangsa Obum, Jomo Menmo (1248–1283), Machig Ongjo y Drenchen Rema. Este es el trabajo por el que es más conocida y desde entonces ha sido traducido del inglés a varios idiomas extranjeros y ampliado en una segunda edición revisada. En 1993, junto a su esposo, David Petit, Tsultrim Allione fundó Tara Mandala, un centro de retiro en el sur de Colorado, en los Estados Unidos. Además de ofrecer retiros en Tara Mandala, Allione enseña regularmente en los Estados Unidos y en Europa.

Pema Chödrön

Pema Chödrön is an American Tibetan Buddhist.

She is an ordained nun, acharya and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

Pema is interested in helping establish the monastic tradition in the West, as well in continuing her work with Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings.

She has written several books: “The Wisdom of No Escape”, “Start Where You Are”, “When Things Fall Apart”, “The Places that Scare You”, “No Time to Lose” and “Practicing Peace in Times of War”, and most recently, “Smile at Fear”.

Chöje Lama Gelongma Palmo

Chöje Lama Gelongma Palmo, ; * 1970 Sabine Januschke in Vienna is one of the very few female Lamas of Buddhism and the first ever non Asian, female Chöje Lama.

Lama Palmo is well known for explaining the dharma in an accessible and contemporary way.

Besides her spiritual and social responsibilities, she is actively involved in many fields and is known for possessing a wide range of practical and intellectual skills, as well as being deeply sincere in her compassionate Buddhist activities.

She has for instance established an animal sanctuary, and is very accomplished at both Western and Tibetan Buddhist arts.

Chöje Lama Palmo was sent to Austria by her lineage and its Supreme Head H. H. The Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa in 2004 to teach the dharma.

She established Palpung Europe with its institutes in Purkersdorf near Vienna and Langschlag in the Waldviertel, The European Seat of the Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa and the Palpung lineage with its seat in exile in Northern India.

She is Palpung Europe’s Head Lama.

Tibetan Nuns Project

The Tibetan Nuns Project is a non-profit organisation founded in 1987 dedicated to educating and supporting female Buddhist monastics in India from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. It supports nuns interested in study and higher ordination. The mission of the Tibetan Nuns Project is to educate and empower nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as teachers and leaders; and to establish, strengthen, and support educational institutions to preserve the Tibetan religion and culture. The organisation supports seven nunneries and over 700 nuns in India.

Thubten Chodron

Thubten Chodron, nacida Cheryl Greene, es una monja budista tibetana estadounidense, autora, maestra y fundadora y abadesa de Sravasti Abbey, el único monasterio de formación budista tibetana para monjas y monjes occidentales en los Estados Unidos. Chodron es una figura central en la reinstauración de la ordenación de Bhikshuni para mujeres. Es estudiante del 14º Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche y otros maestros tibetanos. Ha publicado muchos libros sobre filosofía budista y meditación, y es la única monja que ha coescrito un libro con el Dalai Lama: Budismo: Un Maestro, Muchas Tradiciones.

Robina Courtin

Robina Courtin is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

In 1978 Courtin ordained at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala.

She was Editorial Director of Wisdom Publications until 1987 and Editor of Mandala until 2000.

In 1996 she founded the Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.

She left Mandala to teach and to develop Liberation Prison Project.

Tenzin Palmo

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is a bhikṣuṇī in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India.

She is best known for being one of the very few Western yoginis trained in the East, having spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.

On 16 February 2008, Tenzin Palmo received the title of Jetsunma (reverend lady) in recognition of her spiritual achievements as a nun and her efforts in promoting the status of female practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism by the head of the Drukpa Lineage, the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa,.

Ani (nun)

Ani is a prefix added to the name of a nun in Tibetan Buddhism. Thus, for example, the full title of a nun whose name is Pema becomes Ani Pema

Freda Bedi

Freda Bedi was a British woman who was the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism, which occurred in 1972. She was born in Derby, England.

In 1959, when the Dalai Lama arrived in India after an arduous trek across the Himalayas followed by thousands of his Tibetan devotees, she was asked by India’s prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to help them and spent time improving facilities for refugees at camps in Assam and West Bengal.

She became an observant Tibetan Buddhist and she followed the guidance of the 16th Karmapa of the Kagyu School.

She worked, with the support of the Dalai Lama, to establish the Young Lamas Home School.

Carola Roloff

Carola Roloff is a German Buddhist nun. Her monastic name is Bhiksuni Jampa Tsedroen.

An active teacher, translator, author, and speaker, she is instrumental in campaigning for equal rights for Buddhist nuns.

Ordaining female nuns, or bhiksunis, in the Tibetan tradition has been met with resistance from many Tibetan monks.

Roloff is determined to change this reluctance to allow women into the tradition.

As well as campaigning for a change of opinion, she is instrumental in helping to determine how females can best be accommodated, both in the tradition itself and in sanghas (mutually supportive communities).

Fortunately for Roloff, this imposing challenge has been supported by the 14th Dalai Lama.

As well as lecturing and writing on the subject, Roloff conducts research with other monks and nuns to help strengthen their position.

The Vinaya scriptures, for example, show that the Buddha accepted the role of women as nuns in search of enlightenment, and Roloff therefore often quotes this text.

Zina Rachewski

Zina Rachevsky, also Zenaïde Rachewski or Zina Rachewsky was a Russian-born French-American socialite, film actress, and Gelug Tibetan Buddhist nun.

Her Buddhist name is Thubten Changchub Palmo.

Passang Lhamo

Passang Lhamo is a Tibetan nun, activist, and singer.

Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist, was ordained as a nun at age 14.

According to the Tibet government in exile, on 25 May 1994, Lhamo, along with four other nuns, went to Lhasa to shout slogans and to protest over the PRC rule.

They were imprisoned by the police and placed in the notorious Drapchi Prison in November 1994 along with 13 other nuns to serve a five-year sentence, charged with endangering state security.

Lhamo was eventually set free on 24 May 1999, after five full years in Drapchi.

She briefly returned to Penpo, but fled in exile to Dharamsala in India where she now serves as a nun at the Ganden Choeling Nunnery, near the monastery and residence of the Dalai Lama.

Since, she has done much towards the cause of Tibetan independence, including numerous performances singing at various traditional festivals in the United States and Canada.

Ani Pachen

Ani Pachen was a Tibetan freedom fighter and activist.

After her release from prison in January 1981, Pachen went on a pilgrimage.

She visited the monasteries of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden, which had all been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, during her imprisonment.

Over the course of the next year, she visited monasteries in Lhokha, Shedra, Drolma Lhakhang, Dhalakhampo, and stayed for eight months in the Samye monastery.

There, she learned the Buddhist practice Chud len, or Essence Extraction, and the Chöd practice, before deciding to return to Lhasa to continue support for the cause of Tibetan independence.

She advertised and participated in three notable demonstrations before fleeing to India; the September 27 and October 1 demonstrations of 1987 and the March 5 demonstration of 1988.

In 1989, she discovered that she was to be arrested again and made plans to escape to Nepal over Mount Kailash.

After 25 days, she was airlifted to Dharamshala. Her dream to meet the Dalai Lama came true when she was granted a personal audience soon after her arrival.

She settled in the Gaden Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala, India.

Phuntsog Nyidron

Phuntsog Nyidron is a Tibetan Buddhist nun and a former high-profile prisoner in Tibet.

In 1989, she and eight other nuns traveled from her hometown to the provincial capital of Lhasa when it was convulsed by Tibetan independence protests and riots, and handed out leaflets and shouted anti-Chinese slogans.

She was tried and imprisoned for the charge of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement and imprisoned at the Drapchi Prison that same year.

One of the better-known Tibetan prisoners outside Tibet, she was the subject of a release campaign by several United States Congress parliamentarians and governmental groups.

Because of their efforts, and Chinese wishes to improve Sino-American relations, her sentence was reduced and commuted in 2004.

She lives in Switzerland since 2006.

Orgyan Chokyi

The Life of Orgyan Chokyi is the namtar of Orgyan Chokyi, a Tibetan Buddhist nun who lived in Dolpo, a region in northwestern Nepal, from 1675 until 1729.

It is the oldest of only three extant pre-modern autobiographies by a Tibetan woman.

Ngawang Sangdrol

Ngawang Sangdrol is a former political prisoner, imprisoned at the age of 13 by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, for peacefully demonstrating against the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1992.

She was at first held for eight months without trial, before being sentenced to a three-year prison term.

Her sentence was extended repeatedly for continued protest in prison, which included recording a tape of freedom songs with 13 other nuns from Drapchi Prison that was smuggled out of Tibet.

Davina Delor

Davina Delor is a French dancer, choreographer, writer, and famous for her popular TV show Gym Tonic who adopted monkhood as a Buddhist nun in 2004 after meeting the Dalai Lama.

After ordination, she changed her name to Gelek Drolkar.

She converted her country home at Haims into a Buddhist monastery, and along with three other nuns, teaches Buddhism to students and lay persons.

She has published a number of books on yoga and Buddhism, one of which is titled Le bonheur selon Bouddha which explains the precepts of Buddhism.

Urgyen Tsomo

Urgyen Tsomo (1897–1961) was a prominent Tibetan Buddhist female master who was known as the Great Dakini of Tsurphu.

She was the consort of the Khakyab Dorje, 15th Karmapa Lama.

She was considered by other masters to be the reincarnation (emanation) of Yeshe Tsogyal, the wife of Padmasambhava of the 8th century, who spread Buddhism in Tibet.