buddhistwomen.eu
Network of Buddhist Women in Europe
Female teachers
Lama Droupgyu Karma
After having studied and practiced traditional Chinese medicine for ten years, Lama Droupgyu (born: Fabienne Guillaume) continues her quest for meaning and her desire to be of benefit to others.
In 1994, it was following the decisive meeting with Lama Gendun Rinpoche that she took the monastic vows. She then embarked on the Buddhist path.
She is particularly committed to the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and follows the teachings of her masters: the 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje and Shamar Rinpoche.
From 1994 to 2001, she made two traditional 3-year retreats in the Auvergne region.
After her retreat, she moved to the monastery and began to spread the Dharma in the local branches of Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, the European centre of Karmapa, run by Lama Jigmé Rinpoche. She was then appointed as a teacher lama.
At the same time, she became an administrator of the Buddhist Union of France and then, from 2007 to 2014, one of its vice presidents.
On the proposal of the French Buddhist Union (UBF), which elected her national prison chaplain in 2013, the French Ministry of the Interior officially approved her in 2014.
Since then, she has been in charge of recruiting chaplains from all Buddhist traditions, organizing their training and accompanying them in their functions. She is the interface between the ministerial authorities, the prison administration and the chaplains in the field.
In 2018, some twenty Buddhist chaplains were active, visiting 48 institutions out of 190 prisons in France. Lama Droupgyu responds to the request of detainees in prisons where there is no Buddhist chaplaincy yet.