Lama Yeshe and Venerable Jamyang Wangmo

Venerable Jamyang Wangmo—also known as Jampa Chokyi—is the author of The Lawudo Lama. Born in Spain in 1945 and trained in law, she traveled to India and Nepal and took ordination as a Buddhist nun in 1972. A watercolor artist, she has spent much of the past decades in retreat in Dharamsala, India, and in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal. Here she shares, in her own words, how it all began. 

As a continuation of our yearlong celebration of the FPMT organization turning 50 in December 2025, we are delighted to share Venerable Jamyang Wangmo’ s story and images as one of the early students of FPMT! 

An Old Gelongma’s Tiny Contribution to the FPMT 

 By Venerable Jamyang Wangmo

Venerable Jamyang Wangmo’s IMI booklet

In October 1972, when I met Lama Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) and the International Mahayana Institute (IMI) didn’t exist. The Mount Everest Center was just starting, and the Kopan Monastery’s Gompa was not even finished. In any case, I didn’t come to Nepal looking for an organization to give me some kind of support. I was desperately trying to find a wise person to show me the way out of suffering. 

Lama Zopa’s lamrim teachings and Lama Yeshe’s compassionate and powerful energy effectively helped my mind and my life. A few months later, I was ordained as a novice in Dharamshala by Geshe Rabten Rinpoche and given the name Jampa Chokyi. That same evening, Lama Yeshe sent me on my way back to Nepal. Three days later, I boarded a Pilatus Porter aircraft to Lukla together with some of the young Sherpa monks of Kopan. 

I spent a few years doing retreat in various caves and hermitages around Lawudo when, in 1976, Lama Zopa Rinpoche reached me to inform me that the following year he would give an extensive empowerment of the One-Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) to a group of about eight Westerners. 

At Lawudo there were very few holy objects, so Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked me to make a large thangka and have it ready for the following year, in early May. I was a good artist, but a large one-thousand-armed Chenrezig was not an easy task. To begin with, I had to say goodbye to my cave and find an artist to give me the correct dimensions, etc. The great Sherpa painters were not familiar with Gelugpa deities, and the Nyingma school differed slightly. So, I had no choice but to go down to Kathmandu and eventually to India to look for a good thangka painter to help me. 

Then I decided to make the thangka in silk appliqué instead of painted. Back in Kopan, Lama Yeshe provided a large Tibetan tent where I could stay and work on the thangka. I bought pure silk in Kathmandu, and some people helped to embroider the thousand arms. Finally, I went back to Lawudo in April, and the thangka was ready for the Nyung Nä with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Western students. 

Lawudo painting by Jamyang Wangmo.

I hoped to go back into retreat, but then the lamas asked me to go with them to Spain, to Ibiza, and translate for Lama Yeshe. When I finally came back to Kopan, Lama had a new surprise for me. The foreigners at Lawudo had a terrible time. They didn’t like Sherpa food, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s sister didn’t know what to cook for them, and then there was the language barrier. So, Lama gave me the job of organizing the Westerners for the following Nyung Nä at Lawudo. I had to buy food supplies in Kathmandu, charter a cargo plane to Lukla, and then organize coolies to take things to Lawudo. That was the beginning of the “Lawudo Retreat Center” and for a few years I assumed the high-sounding title of “director of Lawudo Retreat Center.” 

Oseling Centro de Retiros 

Lama Yeshe and Venerable Jamyang Wangmo

In 1979, I went to Italy and other places to give painting classes to Western students, according to Lama Yeshe’s instruction: a talk on the history of Tibetan thangkas, meditation on Tummo, talk and explanation of the Buddha’s 32 major and 80 minor marks, and painting a large Buddha, all in ten days! Lama Yeshe’s style! 

The Lamas were giving a course in southern France, so we went there from Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, driving a car at classic, frightening Italian speed! There was a large group of Spanish students there, and they asked me to lead them in the Thirty-Five Buddhas prostrations, etc. At that time, they had decided to leave Ibiza because it was not a conducive environment for Dharma practice and were looking for a place to open the Nagarjuna Center, and also for a director to lead them. They met with Lama Yeshe, and I was asked to attend. Then they voted and, unfortunately, they elected me as their director! I had no interest, so I told Lama Yeshe, “I’m going back to Nepal, not to Spain,” but Lama Yeshe said, “They chose you. So, what to do!” 

So, I went to Granada to see my father and reflect on a location for the Center. I did a ten-day Tara retreat in the Sierra Nevada. I always liked the Sierra Nevada and used to go skiing there very often. The powerful, blessed energy of those mountains is very strong, so I thought we should look for land somewhere there. The northern slopes are cold and snowy in winter and full of tourists, but the southern side, the Alpujarras, is sunny and peaceful. So, I went to check with a student from Madrid, Jose Juan Ortiz, who had a van, and Maria Ferre from Barcelona. We stayed in a small hotel in Bubión. In the morning, I went out to look at the mountains, and right in front there was a nice mountain. I thought, “That could be a good place!” The hotel owner told us there were some old houses on that hill and they were for sale. It was called the Atalaya, the Watch Tower. 

We went to visit various places, but they were not suitable, so we decided to visit the Atalaya. Just when we started at the bottom of the hill, there was a huge, extremely powerful hailstorm. One window of the van was shattered, and it was a bit frightening. Maria Ferre was crying and worried, but I decided to go up anyway. 

The storm abated when we reached the old houses, and immediately I felt the place was spiritually very powerful and exactly what we were looking for. I sent a message to the Lamas, and they said yes, go ahead and buy it. 

At that time, they had appointed Maria Torres as treasurer, and together with Paco Hita and Francois Camus, they were the ones to stay there and work to make the center a reality. 

A group of students thought it was too remote for them and wanted to find another place, so I offered to stay temporarily in an empty flat I inherited from my mother in Salamanca. That was a difficult time because those people had no wish to follow any discipline, as in a Dharma Center. They were just there having a good time. One monk and others were even going out to bars at night, which didn’t look right for Buddhist monks. Salamanca is a strong Catholic town, so with such Buddhists there was no hope anyone would take seriously a Buddhist Center. After countless discussions and fights, I wrote to Lama Yeshe explaining the situation. He was very upset and sent them a letter saying so, and told me to leave them and go back home. So, I went back home to Nepal. 

The following year, Lama Yeshe wanted to see the land in the Alpujarras. I flew with him from Barcelona to Granada, and Alberto Vinoly and Carmen drove us to the Atalaya. At that time, neither Maria, Paco, nor Francois were there. 

Lama Yeshe loved it and gave clear instructions about the way the center should be organized. The old houses were to be the kitchen, office, reception, and gompa, with some living quarters for those who worked there. 

The upper part was to be exclusively for retreat huts, so meditators would not be disturbed. The large round meditation tent or dome was to be set near the reception and kitchen, and below there should be living quarters for families with children and visitors. 

I wrote down everything Lama said and later passed it on to Maria, Paco, and Francois. Then I went back to Nepal and had no further involvement with the Atalaya. 

That was my second and last involvement in the creation of an FPMT Dharma center. Now I devote myself to developing the center in my own heart and trying to live a meaningful and beneficial life. 

With grateful thanks to Venerable Jamyang Wangmo for this precious personal account of the early days of FPMT!

Jamyang Wangmo in front of the ruins of her hermitage.

Are you an early student of FPMT who was there at the beginning? Do you have a story to share about how you met Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or the impact they have had on your life? Have you personally achieved or actualized a request, advice, practice accomplishment, or project given to you by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche? We want to hear from you!

Please explore all of the resources we have compiled related to FPMT history. We look forward to all of your creative ideas on how to bring this year-long celebration to your own local activities and personal practices! Please use the hashtag #50YearsFPMT in your social media posts so we can all be connected in this way. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.