Khenmo Sonam Choenzin

Venerable Khenmo Sonam Choenzin is a remarkable Tibetan Buddhist nun, scholar, practitioner and teacher the Drikung Kagyu tradition.  She has been a practicing nun since 1995 and is currently one of only six women in the monastic lineage of the Drikung Kagyu to have received the degree and title of Khenmo (Abbess) — an honorific reserved for accomplished scholars of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, bestowed upon her in 2023.

Khenmo Sonam’s training has been both deep and extensive. She completed her primary monastic studies and foundational studies in Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan literature, and grammar at Samtenling Nunnery in Dehradun, India. She went on to earn her undergraduate (Shastri) degree in Buddhist Studies at Kagyu College, followed by the equivalent of roughly two PhDs in Higher Buddhist Studies. Throughout her academic career, she has also served in administrative roles, leadership positions, and as a teacher of foundational Buddhist philosophy and literature at Drikung Samtenling Nunnery.

In 2020, Khenmo Sonam Choenzin entered strict solitary meditation retreat, completing the traditional Three Year Meditation Retreat in the Fivefold Path of Mahamudra under the guidance of His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche.

Prior to her retreat, she also served as sacred objects curator and manager for the Private Office of His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoche.