On September 1, 2015, during the final day of the White Dakini Drubchen, Chandra Easton was enthroned in a beautiful and touching ceremony as the Dorje Lopön (Vajra Teacher) of Tara Mandala under Lama Tsultrim Allione and given the name Lopön Yeshe Dawa Zangmo by H.E. Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche who presided over the ceremony with Lama Tsultrim.
Her Dorje Lopön responsibilities will be teaching and traveling to Tara Mandala Sanghas, residential teaching and education development at Tara Mandala and Global Sanghas, organization and development of Tara Mandala Senior Teachers, and sitting on the Tara Mandala Board of Trustees as Advisor.
Chandra is a long time student of Lama Tsultrim and a Tibetan scholar and translator. She is practicing in the most advanced Complete Transmission group of the Gateway Program at Tara Mandala. She acts as a Kalyanamitra (Spiritual Mentor) for Magyu, the Mother Lineage. For the past two summers she has been in residence during the summer retreat season and has for many years been on the organizational Mandala of the Tara Mandala Bay Area Sangha.
She is also a well respected yoga teacher. Chandra met the Dharma as a child through her mother who was a close disciple of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, and she took refuge with him at the age of four. As an adult she studied Buddhism and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala, India, founded by H.H. Dalai Lama. She later received her degree from University of California Santa Barbara in the religious studies department under B. Alan Wallace at which time she co-translated with him Sublime Dharma, A Compilation of Two Texts on the Great Perfection, published by Vimala Publishing, 2012.
From the very beginning of her Buddhist studies, Chandra has recognized the profound need to bring forth the voice of the sacred feminine in Buddhist theory and practice. Chandra lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. She is currently writing a book on women in Buddhist Tantra and the twenty-one Taras. Her website is chandraeaston.com. May all beings benefit, SARVA MANGALAM!