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Ani Tenzin Sangmo, leads the project.
Tenzin Sangmo was born in the Netherlands 43 years ago.
She started working at a social organisation which advocated
for poor people to better their housing . The organization
worked on community leadership developing grass roots
projects of various kinds. This grass roots organisation
served as a model for many other communities.
She was active in several NGO’s and worked several years
in a Social Lawyers Office. After visiting Nicaragua and
Nepal her life changed dramatically. In Nepal she met
Tibetan refugees who encouraged and inspired her to start
learning about Tibetan Buddhism. Back home in the Netherlands
she started a Tibet Support Group in her hometown.
She changed her job, wanting to have a job that would
give her more contact with people. She began studies in
nursing at the age of 32 and received her final degree
at 36 . With this profession she was more able to work
abroad in “far away countries”. And that was one of her
wishes, to live in other parts of the world. Throughout
all of these years she was developing a greater interest
in Buddhism.
She connected with the Maitreya Institute in Emst (the
Netherlands) where Geshe Konchog Lhundup was her teacher.
She started to organize Dharma teachings for Geshe-la
in Rotterdam. After she finished her nurse education she
went to India and settled down in Dharamsala and studied
Dharma and Tibetan Language. In 1996 she founded Men-la
Foundation a Dutch organisation that helps provide Tibetan
monks and nuns with medical treatment. In 1997 she became
ordained by His Holiness the Dalai lama and began the
next phase of her life - as a Western Buddhist nun. From
her own experiences and conversations with nuns from different
countries all over the world she began to realize how
difficult life could be as a Western Buddhist nun.
Some of the issues which surfaced were no physical community,
the problems related to learning the Tibetan language
and no good space where they can stay that support their
spiritual practices. Early on, it became clear that a
Nunnery focussed on the needs of Western Buddhist nuns
would be an excellent solution.
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