Cave in the Snow

By Vicki MacKenzie,

Book cover of Cave in the Snow

Book description

The biography of the Englishwoman who has become a world-renowned spiritual leader and a champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Following Tenzin Palmo's life from England to India, including her seclusion in a remote cave for 12 years, leading to her decision to found a convent…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Cave in the Snow as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ok this is a little off-theme, but I was blown away when I first read this book many years ago and needed to put it on my list. It tells the story of an English woman who lived alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, practicing Buddhist meditation. I lived as a Buddhist nun in Myanmar, but only for a year, while Tenzin Palmo spent twelve years in silence. Her story is harrowing at times, illuminating, deep, and moving. One interesting tidbit—she never lay down (for 12 years!)!

This book is a true treasure. It tells the incredible story of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, now a world-renowned dharma teacher in the Tibetan tradition. Born as Diane Perry in London, she decided at the age of 18 that she was a Buddhist, saved up her money, and sailed to India in 1964 to pursue her spiritual path. There she battled the prejudice against women in Tibetan Buddhism, did a 12-year solitary retreat in a remote cave in the high Himalayas, and emerged from the cave with the stead-fast determination to build a monastery for nuns in India. Vicki Mackenzie recounts…

This is one of my most favorite books ever! At the age of 18, Diane Perry — now known as Tenzin Palmo — decided she was a Buddhist and her commitment to this path has never wavered. Not even when she was on a three-year solitary retreat in a cave in the Himalayas and got snowed in. She did yoga to keep warm! Author, Vicki McKenzie, has written this fantastically compelling book about how Tenzin Palmo steadfastly held on to her meditation practice, through the unpleasant and challenging realities of being a Buddhist nun in India, (rats under the bed,…

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Tap Dancing on Everest By Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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