Dharmadatta Community was founded in 2009 by and for Spanish-speaking women who share a vision of awakening as collective. All our projects are sustained by a volunteer organization of nearly 200 people, with a circle of seven women sustaining all that we do collaboratively.
The community first began over a decade ago as a group of nuns who lives together for seven years in India training with Tibetan Buddhist masters, including the Dalai Lama, 17th Karmapa and other senior Karma Kagyu masters. After seven years in India and four years living in Mexico as monastics teaching and serving their lay practitioners, Dharmadatta Community has shifted to a model of women-led community that integrates lay and monastic practitioners practicing and leading side by side. Read more here about our ongoing initiative to create an anti-patriarchal mode of collaboration and leadership.
Our “Circle of Connection” has replaced our former leadership team and brings together the diverse abilities, aspirations and experience of seven women from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, USA and Venezuela. Meet the women of our circle here.
The service of teaching is offered by Damcho Diana Finnegan and Thubten Karya (Andrea Quintana Torres). Karya gave up a career translating and teaching to enter the monastic path and is now well on her way to bhikshuni ordination, the highest level of ordination for women in Buddhism. Her 21-day meditation courses are a pillar of our community’s public service offerings. (More about Karya here.) Damcho was a Buddhist nun for 24 years and trained for over a decade in India. She has been teaching in Latin America since 2003, co-founded Dharmadatta in 2010 and has a PhD focusing on gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist narratives. She has translated, edited and authored various books. (More about Damcho here.)
Our offerings include an online institute for the study of Buddhist teachings that now has 400 students in our seven-year study program, a virtual meditation hall with regular group practice sessions and hybrid meditation retreats. To ensure an equitable and inclusive community, Dharmadatta has maintained a fierce commitment to offer all our online talks, workshops, retreats and other events completely free of charge. Our projects are sustained by voluntary donations and the efforts of a volunteer organization that unites nearly 200 people.
Our women-led community locates gender and ecological issues at the heart of Buddhist practice.
The women sustaining our community
Read more about Dharmadatta’s leadership team, our “Circle of Connection”
Current members (in alphabetical order)
Andrea Quintana Torres/Thubten Karya (Colombia)
Damcho Diana Finnegan (USA)
Gabriela Calete (Argentina)
Jennifer Battista Adarme (Venezuela)
Libia Franco González (Mexico)
Lorens Bobadilla Césped (Chile)
Rosalía Vázquez Toríz (Mexico)
