Editing Tibetan Buddhism (section)

====Western nuns and lamas====
Buddhist author Michaela Haas notes that Tibetan Buddhism is undergoing a sea change in the West, with women playing a much more central role.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaela-haas/female-dalai-lama-why-it-matters_b_2982005.html|title=A Female Dalai Lama? Why It Matters|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|access-date=May 4, 2013|quote=Of all these changes that we are watching Buddhism undergo in the West, the most momentous may be that women are playing an equal role.}}</ref>

[[Freda Bedi]]{{efn|Sometimes spelled Frida Bedi, also named Sister Palmo, or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo}} was a British woman who was the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism, which occurred in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61180-425-6|title=Nonfiction Book Review: The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi: British Feminist, Indian Nationalist, Buddhist Nun by Vicki Mackenzie. Shambhala, $16.95 trade paper (208p) {{Text|ISBN}} 978-1-61180-425-6|date=28 March 2017 |publisher=Publishersweekly.com|access-date=2017-06-10}}</ref> [[Pema Chödrön]] was the first American woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.<ref name="DharmaHaven">{{cite web|url=http://dharma-haven.org/tibetan/teachings-ctr-students.html#Pema|title=Works by Chögyam Trungpa and His Students|date=June 23, 1999|work=Dharma Haven|access-date=2013-10-14}}</ref><ref name="Ani Pema Chödrön">{{cite web|url=http://www.gampoabbey.org/ane_pema/|title=Ani Pema Chödrön|publisher=Gampoabbey.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117193624/http://www.gampoabbey.org/ane_pema/|archive-date=2010-11-17|url-status=dead|access-date=2010-11-19}}</ref>

In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in America, Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont, was officially consecrated. It offers novice ordination and follows the [[Drikung Kagyu]] lineage of Buddhism. The abbot of the Vajra Dakini nunnery is [[Khenmo Drolma]], an American woman, who is the first bhikṣuṇī in the Drikung lineage of Buddhism, having been ordained in Taiwan in 2002.<ref name="vajradakininunnery.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/firstsforwomen.html|title=Women Making History|publisher=Vajradakininunnery.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601092702/http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/firstsforwomen.html|archive-date=2010-06-01|url-status=dead|access-date=2010-11-19}}</ref><ref name="drolma">{{cite web|url=http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/nyima.html|title=Khenmo Drolma|publisher=Vajradakininunnery.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601092727/http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/nyima.html|archive-date=2010-06-01|url-status=dead|access-date=2010-11-19}}</ref> She is also the first westerner, male or female, to be installed as an abbot in the [[Drikung Kagyu]] lineage of Buddhism, having been installed as the abbot of the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in 2004.<ref name="vajradakininunnery.org" /> The Vajra Dakini Nunnery does not follow [[The Eight Garudhammas]].<ref name="vajradakini">{{cite web|url=http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/|title=Vajra Dakini Nunnery|publisher=Vajra Dakini Nunnery|access-date=2010-11-19}}</ref>

In April 2011, the [[Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies]] (IBD) in Dharamsala, India, conferred the degree of [[geshe]], a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monastics, on [[Kelsang Wangmo]], a German nun, thus making her the world's first female geshe.<ref name="huffingtonpost.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaela-haas/buddhism-women_b_862798.html|title=2,500 Years After The Buddha, Tibetan Buddhists Acknowledge Women|last=Haas|first=Michaela|date=2011-05-18|work=Huffington Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mandalamagazine.org/2012/geshe-kelsang-wangmo-an-interview-with-the-worlds-first-female-geshe/|title=Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, An Interview with the World's First Female Geshe « Mandala Publications|publisher=Mandalamagazine.org|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415120506/http://www.mandalamagazine.org/2012/geshe-kelsang-wangmo-an-interview-with-the-worlds-first-female-geshe/|archive-date=2013-04-15|url-status=dead|access-date=2014-08-25}}</ref> In 2013 Tibetan women were able to take the geshe exams for the first time.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/06/07/buddhist-nun-professors-or-none//|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607162349/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/06/07/buddhist-nun-professors-or-none/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-06-07|title=Buddhist nun professors or none? – OnFaith|last=Haas|first=Michaela|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> In 2016 twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns became the first Tibetan women to earn [[geshe]] degrees.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tnp.org/geshema/|title=Tibetan Buddhist Nuns Make History: Congratulations Geshema Nuns! – The Tibetan Nuns Project|last=Nuns|first=Tibetan|date=2016-07-14|publisher=Tnp.org|access-date=2016-10-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lionsroar.com/twenty-tibetan-buddhist-nuns-are-first-to-earn-geshema-degrees/|title=Twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns are first ever to earn Geshema degrees – Lion's Roar|date=2016-07-15|publisher=Lionsroar.com|access-date=2016-10-04|archive-date=5 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005144113/http://www.lionsroar.com/twenty-tibetan-buddhist-nuns-are-first-to-earn-geshema-degrees/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo]] gained international attention in the late 1980s as the first Western woman to be a [[Penor Rinpoche]] enthroned [[tulku]] within the [[Nyingma]] [[Palyul]].<ref name="Reborn">{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DC1E3FF935A15753C1A96E948260|title=U.S. Woman Is Named Reborn Buddhist Saint|last=Stevens|first=William K.|date=1988-10-26|access-date=2008-07-26|newspaper=[[New York Times]]}}</ref>