Vajra Dakini Nunnery is envisioned as a contemplative community of nuns and as a place of training and practice for monastics and lay practitioners, women and men, old and young.

Pema Sangzin Khandro (Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo) vowed to manifest her vision and root the Dharma in North America through the creation of this nunnery at the Sunray Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont. Her vision has the full support of the Drikung Kagyu lineage (click below to read letters of support and recognition).

HH Chetsang Rinpoche's Letter of blessing
HE Garchen Rinpoche's Letter of blessing
Khenchen Rinpoche Konchog Gyaltsen's Letter of blessing

In May 2007, the Board of Directors of Vajra Dakini Nunnery formally adopted a 3-step plan of manifestation.

The board committed to the purchase of a wonderful house and 10 acres just a few miles from the Peace Village in Lincoln. This will be the first home of Vajra Dakini Nunnery. Purchasing this property offers two important opportunities:

• 1) We can open immediately! The doors of Vajra Dakini Nunnery can open by fall of 2007, welcoming the first nuns as residents, and offering programs for friends and neighbors. (Please see Visiting the Nunnery for more details).
• 2) The additional 10 acres provides space on which we can build cabins for those wishing individual and group retreat. This will be the perfect annex to our permanent home at the Sunray Peace Village.

Programs are the heart of the nunnery. Purchasing the home on Downingsville Road allows Khenmo Drolma to devote full time to programs—

• working with those considering the monastic life,
• overseeing progress toward ordination for those who have chosen this path,
• offering weekly meditation and teachings for the lay public,
• creating youth programs similar to those she has offered at Gampo Abbey,
• working with the local hospice community,
• holding a conference of Women Spiritual Leaders of Vermont,
• and more.

Hearing the call of the people for such programs, prompted Khenmo and the board to create this 3-step program to accelerate our programmatic offerings.

Building the Vajra Dakini Nunnery hall and residence at the Sunray Peace Village. It is anticipated that in 3-4 years, we will initiate a 3-year Capital Campaign to build a long envisioned meditation hall and residence at the Sunray Peace Village. The house and land on Downingsville Road will be retained as a place of retreat for our community and for others who may wish to rent space for their retreats.

The nunnery will include a main meditation hall, library/classroom and living space for a community of four to eight nuns in residence.

Traditional Elders and Tibetan Rinpoches (precious teachers) have long recognized this valley nestled in the mountains as a site of feminine wisdom, supportive three intact wisdom streams, of powerful spiritual practice.