會議地點：越南胡志明市；時間：2009.12.18 - 2010.01.03；大會主題：傑出的女性修行者與典範=Eminent Buddhist Women
摘要
Freda Bedi was probably the first western women to receive full ordination as a bhikshuni. She was born in England in 1911 and received an M.A. from Oxford University, where she met and married Baba Bedi. On moving to India, she became the headmistress of a girl's school. She subsequently joined the Quit India movement and was jailed by the British for sedition.
In 1947, at the time of Independence, she worked for the Indian government in Delhi. It was during this time that she became Buddhist. In 1959, she was sent to the refugee camp in Missamari, Assam, where many Tibetan refugees had gathered after their flight from Tibet. Her job was to empty the camp, where so many were dying of heat and disease, and send everyone to safer destinations.
Freda somehow intuited that in the future the Dharma would be taught by Tibetans in places around the world, especially by incarnate lamas, or tulkus. Therefore, she started a school called the Young Lamas Home School where tulkus of all Tibetan traditions could be educated in philosophy by qualified teachers and could also learn English to prepare them for their future role in teaching the Dharma to foreigners. Many prominent lamas in the west, including Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, studied at this school.
Freda Bedi also started the first Tibetan nunnery in exile, which still exists today. She received novice ordination from H.H. the 16th Karmapa and then took bhikshuni ordination in Hong Kong in 1972. She lived at the monastery of H.H. Karmapa at Rumtek in Sikkim for many years and also traveled to South Africa to teach Dharma, with great success. She passed away in 1977 in Delhi.
