20/10/2024
On two or three occasions, my Lama said, ‘I would like you to start a nunnery.’ And I said, ‘oh yes,’ and let it drop. I mean, at that time I was young. I had no idea how you even begin to start a nunnery, so I just said, ‘oh, yes.’ And then later when other Lamas said, "now you start a nunnery", I knew intuitively this was right. For me, you see, it’s a way to fulfil my deep gratitude to my teachers, to my lineage, and to serve women.
In addition, when I first was with my Lama, I said, ‘I would like to be a Togdenma, a yogini.’ And he was very happy. And he got up and he went into another room and he came back with a long silk scarf. In those days people didn’t use silk scarves, they used cotton cheesecloth for scarves. Silk scarves were very rare. And he got this long silk scarf, he put it around my neck, and he said, ‘in Tibet we had many Togdenma. Now I don’t have any. And I really pray that you will reestablish the Togdenma tradition.’ And so I was so happy. I was blissed out.
Then he asked the Togdens, the yogis, and they said, ‘oh, great, wonderful. Yes, she can come live with us. We’ll train her. We’ll give her to so and so.’ And so he said, ‘yes fine, I will train her. You can come live with me.’ And then the lay people and the monks heard about this and they said, ‘no way. No way a girl is going to go and live with our Togdens.’ So I never did it.
But I still remember Rinpoche saying, ‘I pray that you will reestablish the Togdenma tradition.’ And I’m sure that with Rinpoche’s prayers I will reestablish the Togdenma tradition - not for me but for others.
- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, 1998
Yesterday, October 17th 2024, for the celebration of DGL Nunnery's silver jubilee, four of our nuns received their red and white robes from Togden Trinley Kunchab, officially recognising them as Togdenma after 16 years of retreat.
Photo: Jetsunma and the Togdenmas in the background receiving khatas, 2024.
