Ani Wangmo at the Summer Camp at Casa da Torre in Portugal
Ani Wangmo’s story is similar to Tanya’s (see Conversation with Tatjana Popovic), except that Tanya had decided that after the three-year retreat she preferred not to return to monastic life, for the time-being at least. Ani Wangmo, on the other hand, took the robes and for the past 8-years she has been a nun. Every story about becoming a monk or a nun is different, and Ani Wangmo’s is no less engaging for being a personal account of the events in her life that brought her to a resolution to dedicate her life to the dharma.
Ani recalls her early experiences of becoming aware of eastern culture: I was going to university for some time and then, after I went to India for the first time, I never went back to university. When I heard that the Tibetans were actually in India, I decided I wanted to learn about Tibetan Buddhism. I knew they were in Tibet, but Tibet was a difficult place to reach from Slovenia. I didn’t know anyone who had been to Tibet but I knew quite a few people who had been to India as tourists…I decided to go to India to see for myself.