
Venerable Thubten Chonyi
Bhikshuni
Ven. Chonyi met Abbey founder and abbess Venerable Thubten Chodron in the mid-1990s, taking refuge with her at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1997. After completing a three-month Vajrasattva retreat, she made a deep commitment to study and practice the Dharma as a lay student.
She moved to North Idaho in 2002. Venerable Chodron and the Abbey fortuitously became her neighbor the next year. She was a founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey and a frequent Abbey visitor before realizing her extraordinarily precious circumstances. She moved to the Abbey in June 2007, took sramanerika and sikasamana precepts in May 2008, and received full ordination at Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan in 2011.
Ven. Chonyi’s formal education was in theatre, and she worked for many years as a performer, publicist, fundraiser, and producer in the performing arts. She was a Reiki teacher and practitioner for nineteen years, co-operating Reiki Healing Arts in Seattle and Coeur d’Alene. She also served as Managing Editor for Reiki Magazine International.
At the Abbey, Ven. Chonyi is mainly involved with publicity and inviting generosity. She occasionally shares Buddha’s teachings at the Abbey, online, and at Buddhist centers in the US and abroad.