At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.Īni Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.Īni Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. Pema has two children and three grandchildren. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Ani Pema Chödrön ( Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) is an American Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, closely associated with the Kagyu school and the Shambhala lineage.

The pocket pema chodron