Product Description

The story of Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman, the daughter of a fishmonger from London's East End, who spent 12 years alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas and became a world-renowned spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Diane Perry grew up in London's East End. At the age of 18 however, she read a book on Buddhism and realised that this might fill a long-sensed void in her life. In 1963, at the age of 20, she went to India, where she eventually entered a monastery. Being the only woman amongst hundreds of monks, she began her battle against the prejudice that has excluded women from enlightenment for thousands of years. In 1976 she secluded herself in a remote cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, where she stayed for 12 years between the ages of 33 and 45. In this mountain hideaway she faced unimaginable cold, wild animals, floods, snow and rockfalls, grew her own food and slept in a traditional wooden meditation box, three feet square - she never lay down. In 1988 she emerged from the cave with a determination to build a convent in northern India to revive the Togdenma lineage, a long-forgotten female spiritual elite.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31801 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Cave in The Snow is hot stuff!
In 1976 Diane Perry, by then known by her Tibetan name Tenzin Palmo, secluded herself in a remote cave, over 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, cut off from the world by mountains & snow. There she engaged in years of intense Buddhist meditation. Her goal was to gain Enlightenment as a woman.

Tenzin Palmo's path inspired, uplifted & gave me the giggles too! From Diane's war-worn childhood to her wild teen years in Swinging London during the 1960s to her determination to follow her calling to the exiled Tibetan communities in Northern India. From Diane's survival of strange childhood ailments to her connection with the rare Buddhist societies in England to her glimpses of the Path to Perfection, Vicki Mackenzie tells this modest pioneering woman's adventures on her way to the roof of the world among a people with a long lineage of spiritual attainment with a lively, insightful fluency enhanced by snippets of conversations & seemingly simple philosophies.

Vicki Mackenzie has written an articulate modern adventure story complete with everyday bean counters & spiritual soul counters.

There is an amusing & entertaining history lesson to be had from Cave In The Snow. Being of the same age as Tenzin Palmo, I was also exploring Buddhism, except I emigrated to America. Even so I came across the same shin-whacking taboo - women cannot become gurus, lamas, priests, imams or rabbis because...& the silly litany tumbles out of men's mouths the way excuses do when they're caught with their fingers in the cookie jars.

As any woman who has ever stumbled into male-run religions knows, it always knocks the breath out of us when, with that simple, lineal logic, we are cast into spiritual exile because those in the know consider the attainment of Enlightenment a man thang & the body female prohibits both the study & the fulfillment of spiritual perfection. As if Spirit has a gender!

Irony is one aspect of becoming spiritual that brought about the giggles. Among all that seriousness there are gentle glimpses of glee such as when a monk bids Tenzin Palmo to raise the volume on her boom box so he could hear the Spanish monks singing their prayers.

High amid the Himalayas, this odd English woman brings to those sonorous sounding monks the rarified harmonies of Gregorian chants. Any Buddhist monk I've ever seen has had a ready smile & a mischievous laugh. That is attractive to me - a religious people who enjoy laughing.

For anyone who wants their heart to soar, their spirit to burst open like a flower, their mind to enfold peace ... Very well done!

A treacherous path to enlightenment
This is an interesting view of what one woman undertook to journey toward enlightenment.The tale is one of great courage and is very inspiring. The attitude of traditional Tibetan Buddhism toward women was a shock to a Westerner. The chapter on the "flaws" of some of the Tibetan spiritual leaders reminded me that we all have a process in seeking enlightenment and that each person must witness him/herself throughout the journey. Even those who have reached a high level are still human beings. This was encouraging. However, I frequently found myself wishing the book were written better. The sometimes plodding style was occasionally distracting.

A tremendous story of dedication
Vicki MacKenzie really takes the reader inside the life of Tenzin Palmo and shows her determination to get to enlightenment. What is the most striking is how the daily hardships seem to be barely mentioned by Tenzin Palmo even though, as pointed out by the writer, they seem immense to a Western reader. Reading this book made me realise just what true religious dedication is and makes my own worries seem so minor. Overall, an uplifting read which although outlining much of the core of Buddhism is more memorable as a story of a truly amazing woman.