| Freda Bedi | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Tibetan Buddhism |
| School | Kagyu |
| Lineage | Karma Kagyu |
| Other name(s) | Sister Palmo |
| Dharma name(s) | Karma Kechog Palmo |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | British |
| Born | February 5, 1911 England, Derby |
| Died | March 26, 1977 (aged 66) New Delhi, India |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Gelongma |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher | 16th Karmapa |
Freda Bedi sometimes spelled Frida Bedi also named Sister Palmo, or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo, (February 5, 1911– March 26, 1977) was a British woman born in Austria or in Derby, England, who became famous as the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism.
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Freda Bedi was born Freda Swan in Austria[1] or in Derby, England, February 5, 1911, and was the daughter of Francis Edwin Houlston and Nellie Diana Swan. She studied at Parkfield Cedars School, and then at St Hugh's College, Oxford University where she obtained a MA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and encountered her future husband, a Sikh from the Bedi family, linked to a Sikh clan tracing back to Guru Nanak Dev Ji,[2] Baba Pyare Lal Bedi (1909-1993), who was an author and philosopher from the Sikh faith.[3] She also studied a few years at Sorbonne, Paris.[4]
In the 1930s, she moved to India where she settled in 1934. She participated in the Indian national independence movement and was arrested and detained with her children[5] along with Gandhi as a satyagrahi[6]. She has been professor of English at Srinagar in Kashmir, then editor of the magazine "Social Welfare" of the Ministry of Welfare; social worker of the United Nations Social Services Planning Commission to Burma; advisor on Tibetan Refugees to the Ministry of External Affairs. In 1952, she visited Rangoon where she learned vipassana from Mahasi Sayadaw, and Sayadaw U Titthila.[7][2]
In 1959, when the 14th Dalai Lama arrived in India along with thousands of Tibetans, she was asked by Nehru to help them and she was in charge of the Social Welfare Board. She dedicated her self to social activity and, she followed the guidance of the 16th Karmapa of the Kagyu School. She worked with the Dalai Lama to establish the Young Lamas Home School[8] (Freda Bedi asked Chogyam Trungpa to train young Tibetan monks, and he became the spiritual advisor of them[9]; Thubten Zopa Rinpoche[10], Akong Rinpoche, Tulku Pema Tenzin, Gelek Rimpoche, Yeshe Losal, and the sons of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima and Chokling of Tsikey[11]) of which she was the principal in Delhi and then in Dalhousie. In 1963, with Lama Karma Thinley Rinpoche and under the guidance of the Karmapa, she founded the Karma Drubgyu Thargay Ling nunnery for Tibetan women in northern India. It is today relocated in Tilokpur, Kangra Valley.[12][13]
In 1959 Christopher Hills had lobbied Nehru to approve a government in exile for the Dalai Lama fleeing persecution in Tibet and to grant full refugee status to exiled Tibetans. He had become connected to the Tibetans through his study of Buddhism and in 1960 provided funding for his English friend Freda Bedi to start the Young Lama’s Home School[14] in Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh. Later he contributed to Freda Bedi's building of the Karma Drubgyu Thargay Ling nunnery and helped organize her journey to the West with the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje in 1974.
After the young tulkus' school stopped, Bedi went to Rumtek in Sikkim, the seat of the Karmapa in exile. In 1966, she took sramaneri ordination by the Karmapa, and was given the name Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo. She was the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism. In 1972, she took full bhikshuni ordination in Hong Kong. She accompanied the Karmapa on his first visit to the West in 1974. In 1971, a book she had written was published by Lama Anagarika Govinda's Arya Maitreya Mandala in Germany. She died in New Delhi, March 26, 1977[15][16][17]
She is the mother of 2 sons, Ranga and Kabir Bedi, a Hollywood and Hindi Film Star, and a daughter, Gulhima.[18]
She was a Tibetan–English translator.[19]