Tsa lung is an ancient Tibetan yogic practice working with subtle channels, the breath, movement, and the mind. From September 15, 2026 – October 15, 2026, Geshema Sherap Palzin with lead an intensive retreat focused on this yogic practice at Ratna Menling Nunnery in Dholanji, India. This unique opportunity for teachings and intensive practice is open to everyone regardless of previous knowledge or experience. The purpose of the retreat is to both receive instruction and to develop profound inner experience through sustained and supported practice sessions over a one month period. For beginners, this is an opportunity to receive the instructions and immediately go deep into the practice without the distractions of everyday life. For experienced practitioners, this is an opportunity to deepen and stabilize their practice while being able to receive instruction and advice from Geshema Sherab Palzin.
During the morning, practitioners will have time for circumambulating the monastic complexes or spending time at either Menri or Ratna Ling, time for self-study and practice, or reviewing notes from the previous teaching sessions. After lunch, practitioners will arrive at the Ratna Menling nunnery for the first session of teaching and practice. After a tea and snack break, practitioners will convene for their second session of teaching and practice. Every Sunday will be a rest day unless an additional teaching session is needed. This retreat is being hosted by Niu Pal Gyi De Nai, The Holy Place of the Sacred Sisters. For more details or to register, email Palden Tsering at bonpoani2024@gmail.com.
Niu Pal Gyi De Nai is the very first online teaching initiative led by the geshemas of Ratna Menling Nunnery. In May 2024, the first online teachings with the geshemas was organized under the simple name of The Geshema Teaching Group. This humble beginning gradually grew into a vibrant, international spiritual community. On March 5, 2025, at the request of Geshema Sherab Palzin, His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche bestowed upon the group the sacred name of Niu Pal Gyi De Nai, The Holy Place of the Sacred Sisters.
When Buddha Tönpa Shenrap Miwo began teachings, there were both male and female disciples. Among the assembly of female practitioners were his two daughters, Shenza Niu Chen and Shenza Niu Chung. Therefore, the name Niu refers to these two sisters who established the human female lineage of Yungdrung Bön, and also to the spiritual sisters of Ratna Menling nunnery who continue this lineage. Pal Gyi refers to being holy or noble. De Nai refers to a sacred place or spiritual dwelling place. Niu Pal Gyi De Nai continues to regularly offer free online teachings to the worldwide Yungdrung Bön community. Any donations are used for the daily needs of the geshemas and for the continued support and growth of Niu Pal Gyi De Nai.
Geshema Sherab Palzin Talks with Raven Cypress Wood
On May 13th, 2026 Geshema Sherab Palzin kindly took the time from her busy schedule at the Ratna Menling Nunnery in Dholanji, India to speak with Raven Cypress Wood about herself and her upcoming intensive tsa lung retreat. Palden Tsering kindly provided live translation. Below is an excerpt from that interview.
Raven Cypress Wood: Tashi Delek, Dear Geshema. Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview.
Geshema Sherab Palzin: Tashi Delek. Oh, thank you for your interest and also for sharing information about the tsa lung retreat.
RCW: You were born into a nomad family in Tibet. How did you become inspired to become a Bönpo nun? Did you see Bönpo nuns when you were a child?
Geshema: When I was young, I had a kind of faith and devotion towards monks, nuns, and the lamas. From our family, there was a relative on my mother’s side who is now a very well-known nun. She practices tsa lung and undergoes dark retreats. When she came to our house, she was always happy. Everyone showed her lots of respect. I thought, if I become a nun then my life will be very happy, very peaceful, very spiritual. So, from that, I decided to become a nun. Also, there were other nuns who would come to our house with some of our relatives. When they arrived, everyone would have the feeling that the actual buddha had arrived. There was a feeling that they were real buddhas.
So, I decided I want to be a nun. But I did not tell my relatives directly that I wanted to be a nun. I told them that I wanted to go with the nuns so that I could get an education, to learn to read and write. Before leaving the first time to get teachings from Namkha Rinpoche, I told only my mom that my intention was to become a nun. My mom said, “Oh, this is very good! This is very nice. Being born in samsara, there are many troubles and problems the whole life. There is no happiness. If you become a nun, this will be very good.” So, my mother supported me a lot.
RCW: Listening to your story, it sounds as though the Tibetan community shows equal respect to the nuns as they do for the monks. Is this true?
Geshema: Yes, but that is talking about the perspective of society. From another perspective, the male geshes have more opportunities and more confidence to speak in front of the public. The female geshes have much fewer opportunities to speak publicly. And so, they can feel nervous because of their lack of experience when they give teachings or speak publicly. So the nuns don’t have the courage to step forward and society doesn’t give them many opportunities. In that way, the nuns are in a difficult position. So, only in that regard, I feel that the female geshes are a little lower than the male geshes.
RCW: What kind of support do you feel would give the geshemas confidence to step forward? You have your organization, Niu Pal Gyi Den Nai, to help support them. Do you think this will help them gain more experience and confidence over time?
Palden Tsering: Yes, Niu Pal Gyi Den Nai is the first organization to support the nuns in giving teachings. From my experience over the past two years, now all the geshemas feel more support and are getting experience of giving teachings to the Westerners. Now the geshemas that have been teaching through Niu Pal Gyi Den Nai speak with much more confidence.
Geshema: At Menri, the male and female geshes are shown the same respect. Two times, I went out to a conference and the female geshes were given the very same seating and other respect as the male geshes.
Geshema Talks About the Practice of Tsa Lung
RCW: Can you share more about your first one hundred day tsa lung retreat in Tibet? How old were you and how many nuns were you practicing with?
Geshema: At that time, there were forty nuns that were doing the tsa lung retreat. Thirty-six nuns were with me and there were four nuns at a different retreat center doing the retreat. First, we had thirty days of preliminary practices. Then, the main practice was one hundred days. Then, that was followed by fourteen days of chulen [eating the essence of the elements] practice. So, it was a total of 144 days of practice. All the other nuns with me had lots of experience. They had done this retreat six or seven times and were all experts. It was my first time. I was twenty years old. I had to memorize all of the prayers and then recite them in front of the lama. But, I had a very happy and peaceful experience. I am hoping to continue doing this kind of retreat again and again.
RCW: In September, you are offering a month-long tsa lung teaching and practice for Westerners. Tell me about your vision for this retreat.
Geshema: From a spiritual point of view, they will receive the knowledge and experience to do this practice. From a physical body point of view, they will be able to strengthen their health. They will get the benefits for both spiritual and for health. This one month retreat is for both beginners and for experienced practitioners. For the experienced ones, I would like for them to have the experience of doing it again and getting more from the practice, to refresh and deepen their practice. For me, when I did it again and again, each time the experience was more perfect. For the beginners who do not know anything about tsa lung, they will get new knowledge and also learn from the more experienced practitioners. When I was doing the tsa lung for the first time and all the other nuns were very experienced, I learned a lot by practicing with them and watching them.
This is the first time for organizing a teaching by the geshemas of Ratna Menling Nunnery. I decided to take the initiative and to organize this through our Niu Pal Gyi Den Nai. When I was very young, all my relatives were always very supportive for whatever I wanted to do. Everyone always gave me a great amount of support. Through that feeling of support, I decided to request a name for our group from His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche, and we got the name Niu Pal Gyi De Nai. So now, we are organizing a teaching like this for the very first time.
More About the Life of Geshema Sherab Palzin
Geshema Sherap Palzin was born in the Water Male Dog year of 1982 to a family of nomads in Eastern Tibet. As a young child, she joined family members on a pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Khyungpo Riwo Tsédruk and Pugyal Yungdrung Lhatsé. Later at the age of thirteen, together with a few family members and other members of her community, she journeyed to be in the holy presence of Rakshi Tokden Drimé Yungdrung Rinpoche. From him, she received the oral transmissions for the preliminary practices, the main practice, and powa. Intensively practicing powa while there, she received the blessing of having Tokden Drimé Yungdrung Rinpoche place the kusha grass into the opening at the crown of her head, symbolizing her attainment of the result of powa. Once she returned home, she continued practicing while acting as a shepherdess to the family’s animals. In 2000, at the age of nineteen, she went to Khyungpo Riwo Tsédruk and received the novice vows from her root lama, Drupchen Namkha Gyaltsen Rinpoche and was given the name Sherab Palzin. Around that time, there were between two and three hundred nuns studying and practicing together under the guidance of Namkha Rinpoche.
She continued her practice of the preliminaries and again underwent a powa retreat and attained the result. The following Spring, she completed a forty-nine day dark retreat. From both Drupchen Namkha Gyaltsen Rinpoche and Tsukpü Rinpoche she received many oral transmissions and empowerments from the collected scriptures of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche. In the Summer of 2001, as she was completing a second forty-nine day dark retreat under the guidance of Namkha Rinpoche, Chinese officials arrived and would not allow them to stay in that place and practice or receive teachings. Some nuns went back to their homeland, some went to various monasteries, and others, along with Sherab Palzin, went to Khyungpo Tengchen Gompa and continued their practice for four years. At that time, there was no separate place for the nuns and so they built their own place of residence and practice nearby the main center of Tengchen Gompa. During this time, she underwent a 125-day retreat practicing tsa lung, and chülen (extracting and eating the essence of the elements) and another forty-nine day dark retreat.
In 2005, due to the many difficulties in Tibet, Ani Sherab Palzin along with two other nuns decided to leave Tibet and go to India in order to meet His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Rinpoche and His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche, and to continue their education and practice in the new nunnery that was being built in India near Menri Monastery. This journey would take them four months and twenty days. First, they traveled to Kongpo Bönri where Namkha Rinpoche had established the first dialectic school for nuns. Then, they traveled on to Lhasa and to Mt. Tisé [Kailash]. From Mt. Tisé, they headed towards Nepal. They mostly walked, without a guide or map, and made their way to the border of Nepal. On rare occasions, they were able to ride in a vehicle. They spent many days without any food or water. Finally crossing the Nepali border, they each received a bit of food. However, due to heavy rain their clothes were soaked. Unable to acquire any way of making a fire to either dry their clothes or heat their food, their difficulties continued. However, they eventually made their way to a Nyingma gompa where they were able to stay for 28 days. Leaving this gompa, they were able to walk with a shepherd who acted as their guide for six days. After six days, they traveled on alone.
Walking day and night, their feet became painfully swollen and covered in blisters. At this time in Nepal, there were armed Maoist throughout the country and they continually invoked the enlightened guardian Sipé Gyalmo for protection. Not having a map or guide, whenever they came to a crossroads Ani Sherab Palzin would use a Sipé Gyalmo divination in order to choose their direction. With the exception of spending a few hours walking in the wrong direction only a single day, they made their way directly to their destination. However, during that time, they were twice caught by the Maoist. Even though the soldiers held their rifles directly at the chest of the nuns, through the blessings of Sipé Gyalmo, they were released unharmed. Continuing on into Nepal, they were again captured. This time it was by the local Nepali police who refused to release them. They spent seventeen days in a Nepali jail before they were able to contact Triten Norbutse Monastery who arranged for their release. During their incarceration, when the Nepali prison officials saw they condition of their feet after walking for so many days and nights, it brought them to tears. Once released, they made their way to Triten Norbutsé and stayed there for five years continuing their practice and receiving teachings from His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche while construction of Ratna Menling in India was being completed.
In 2009, H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche was meeting with the three nuns who had walked from Tibet to Nepal and told them, “You are the only three Bön nuns who have been able to come from Tibet to India. Now, you have this precious opportunity. You must continue your education and help to preserve the Yungdrung Bön.” In the Winter of 2010, they arrived at Ratna Menling India and began their studies in the dialectic school. After years of study, Sherab Palzin, along with a small group of nuns, graduated in the first class of nuns from the dialectic school and was awarded a geshe degree. Currently, she has taken the initiative and become one of the primary geshemas who is offering online teachings through Niu Pal Gyi De Nai. In this way, she hopes to give the other geshemas confidence to also become more comfortable in offering their knowledge to others.
What is the practice of tsa lung? A Brief Introduction
The practice of tsa lung is an ancient form of yoga that is used as a support practice for both the body and mind. Tsa is a Tibetan word meaning channel and in this context refers to the subtle channels within the physical body rather than the gross channels that carry blood, phlegm, and so on. On one way of counting, there are more than twenty-one thousand channels in the body. In another way of counting, the channels are actually so numerous that they are considered countless. However, there are three primary subtle channels that abide within the torso and head that are connected with the five major organs, the brain, the five sense organs, and that branch out to nourish both the subtle and gross elements of the body.
Lung is a Tibetan word meaning wind or air and in this context refers to the many kinds of subtle wind that move within the subtle channels within the physical body. There are many kinds of subtle wind including winds related to the emotional afflictions and winds related to wisdom and bliss. From these two broad categories, there are many ways to categorize the many kinds of winds. For example, there are The Nine Winds that range from The Eon Destroying Wind to The Wind of the Space of the Essence of Bön that supports abiding without interruption in the true nature. From the perspective of the physical human body and the yogic practice of tsa lung, there are five primary winds. These winds each are associated with specific characteristics, colors, shapes and and elements. Together, these five winds govern all actions of the physical body.
- The Upward Moving Wind: This wind is located in the head and chest and governs the functions of breathing, swallowing, and talking. When it is developed and balanced, it supports the five senses, enables the realization of bliss and the singing of songs of realization. When it is undeveloped or weak, it results in dull senses, lying, harsh speech, and gossip, anxiety, and the inability to speak.
- The Life-force Holding Wind: This wind is located in the heart center and governs the life-force and the power of the mind. When it is developed and balanced, the life-force and memory are stable and have power, there is strong mental focus, along with an experience of clarity and the blaze of wisdom. When it is undeveloped or weak, there is forgetfulness, agitation, anger, and an increase in thoughts. When very weak, there is insanity, unconsciousness, or death.
- The Fire-like Wind: This wind is located at the navel and stomach and governs the functions of nourishing the body, digesting food, and generating warmth. When it is developed and balanced, there is physical vitality, the ability to control dreams, and the heat of spiritual awakening. When it is undeveloped or weak, there is sleepiness, dull-mindedness, bile-related illnesses, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- The Pervasive Wind: This wind is located below the navel and throughout the body and governs many various functions of the body. When it is developed and balanced, all the limbs have strength and one gains the ability to perform miraculous feats. When it is undeveloped or weak, there is stealing and an increase in other negative actions, rheumatism or gout. When very weak, there is an inability to get up.
- The Downward-clearing Wind: This wind is located in the area of the sexual organs and the legs and governs the control and release of urine and feces. When developed and balanced, the lower body has strength, and bliss is enhanced. When undeveloped or weak, the ability to control feces and urine is lost, problems with the kidneys, and negative actions related to desire such as adultery increase.
The practice of tsa lung unites specific movements of the body, visualization and awareness of the mind, and breathing exercises in order to develop and balance these winds to maintain health of the physical body and to gain stability and realization of the mind.
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