A precious lineage
![Venerable sitting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-dalai-lama-feature-1.jpg)
Venerable Thubten Chodron with some of her teachers—His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Jampa Tegchok, Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Tenzin Wangdak, and the reincarnations of Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-dalai-lama-2005 Venerable Chodron standing next to His Holiness.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-dalai-lama-2005-1-212x300.jpg)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama touches a Buddha image to his crown and then gives it to Venerable Chodron – October, 2005.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-lama-yeshe-tsenshap-serkong-rinpoche-1982 Venerable Chodron, behind Lama Yeshe, offering the mandala.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-lama-yeshe-tsenshap-serkong-rinpoche-1982-1-300x200.jpg)
Assisting Lama Yeshe in offering the mandala to Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, the master debate partner of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and their spiritual mentor. (Photo taken around 1982.)
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-dalai-lama-residence-2005 Venerable Chodron turning prayer wheels.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-dalai-lama-residence-2005-1-300x218.jpg)
Circumambulating the hill where His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives and turning prayer wheels – Dharamsala, October, 2005.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-lama-zopa-dff The monastics sitting together before a teaching.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-lama-zopa-dff-1-300x220.jpg)
In 1997, with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Venerable Roger and Venerable Tsenla at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-geshe-sopa-lama-zopa-2005 Venerable Chodron standing with group of monastics.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-geshe-sopa-lama-zopa-2005-1-300x192.jpg)
What an illustrious group! Geshe Sopa (center back) and Lama Zopa (clapping) with senior students at Deer Park, August, 2005.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-ling-rinpoche-2006 Venerable Chodron sitting with Ling Rinpoche.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-ling-rinpoche-2006-1-300x257.jpg)
In November, 2006, with Ling Rinpoche, whose previous life was the senior tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and ordained Venerable Chodron as a nun in 1977.
![gallery-spiritual-mentors-khensur-rinpoche-2006 Venerable Chodron offering a mandala to Khensur Rinpoche.](https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gallery-spiritual-mentors-khensur-rinpoche-2006-1-300x212.jpg)
Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche, the former abbot of Sera Je Monastery, taught Nagarjuna's 'The Precious Garland' for ten days at the Abbey in December, 2006. Venerable Chodron offered a mandala, a symbol of the universe, to Khensur Rinpoche before the teachings began.
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.