YouTube & Zoom: Q&A with Clear Mountain Monastery
Venerable Thubten Damcho 
May 27, 2023 
2 hours
Online, In Person
Ven. Chodron Q&A with Ajahns Kovilo and Nisabho
A Growing Friendship between Sravasti Abbey & Clear Mountain Monastery
Wednesday June 21
6–7:30 pm Pacific Time
Hosted on YouTube and Zoom by Clear Mountain Monastery
As part of a growing friendship, Eastern Washington’s Sravasti Abbey and Seattle’s Clear Mountain Monastery will co-host a Q&A session at 6 pm Wed. June 21, with Ven. Thubten Chodron and the two communities, including those joining online (6-6:45 pm via YouTube Livestream and 6:45-7:30 pm via Zoom).
Ajahn Nisabho and Ajahn Kovilo, co-founders of Clear Mountain Monastery, will lead an interview with Ven. Chodron in which they, and those joining online, will have the opportunity to ask her about the confluence of the Mahāyāna and Theravāda traditions, Emptiness, building harmonious community, and other questions that come to mind. The shared event represents the first step in a budding relationship bridging Washington and the two traditions.
Program
6–6:45 pm: Watch livestream on YouTube here.
6:45–7:30 pm: Join the conversation as it continues on Zoom here.
Meeting ID: 814 0437 4852
Passcode: 018605
Venerable Thubten Damcho
Ven. Damcho (Ruby Xuequn Pan) met the Dharma through the Buddhist Students’ Group at Princeton University. After graduating in 2006, she returned to Singapore and took refuge at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See (KMSPKS) Monastery in 2007, where she served as a Sunday School teacher. Struck by the aspiration to ordain, she attended a novitiate retreat in the Theravada tradition in 2007, and attended an 8-Precepts retreat in Bodhgaya and a Nyung Ne retreat in Kathmandu in 2008. Inspired after meeting Ven. Chodron in Singapore in 2008 and attending the one-month course at Kopan Monastery in 2009, Ven. Damcho visited Sravasti Abbey for 2 weeks in 2010. She was shocked to discover that monastics did not live in blissful retreat, but worked extremely hard! Confused about her aspirations, she took refuge in her job in the Singapore civil service, where she served as a high school English teacher and a public policy analyst. Offering service as Ven. Chodron’s attendant in Indonesia in 2012 was a wake-up call. After attending the Exploring Monastic Life Program, Ven. Damcho quickly moved to the Abbey to train as an Anagarika in December 2012. She ordained on October 2, 2013 and is the Abbey’s current video manager. Ven. Damcho also manages Ven. Chodron’s schedule and website, helps with editing and publicity for Venerable’s books, and supports the care of the forest and vegetable garden.