Special Session

Special Supplemental Session

with

Dr. Tsering Palmo
Tibetan Buddhist Nun and Doctor of Tibetan Medicine

December 14^th
Jodo Shu Research Institute
Tokyo

Through our two Roundtable Sessions, we have incorporated a variety of Buddhist viewpoints on dying, outside of just the Pure Land tradition. The one prominent missing tradition from this dialogue has been the Tibetan Buddhist one. This tradition is perhaps foremost in its understanding of death and in its practices to guide the dying through this process. Thus, we are very fortunate to announce a special supplemental session to our two roundtables with Dr. Tsering Palmo.

Dr. Palmo is from Ladakh, a region in northern India which shares the same climate, topology and culture with Tibet. At first, she wanted to study western medicine but, when she realized that this also meant killing animals for research, she decided to become a traditional Tibetan doctor or “amchi”. She was the first Ladakhi nun trained in traditional Tibetan medicine, and in 1993 graduated from the Tibetan Medical Institute (Men-Tsee-Khang) in Dharamsala. Since 1994, she has been working to help the Ladakhi nuns, and founded the Ladakh Nuns Association (LNA) in 1996. She has the support of Most Ven. Redzong Sras Rinpoche, who now serves as the patron of the LNA, along with the heads of the remaining three sects of Tibetan Buddhism, including the Dalai Lama.

Dr. Palmo lead us through two sessions. The morning session focused on the concepts and practice of Tibetan medicine. The afternoon session focused on Tibetan Buddhist practices for dying. As with our previous roundtables, we took ample time for questions and discussion – with the particular focus on how Dr. Palmo’s ideas and practices can relate to the Japanese situation.

For more on Dr. Palmo’s work and Ladakh, see these web sites:
Ladakh Nuns Association
Interview with Dr. Palmo
Report on Ladakhi Nuns