Carola Roloff

Carola Roloff (born 1959 in Holzminden, Germany) is a German Buddhist nun. Her monastic name is Bhiksuni Jampa Tsedroen. An active teacher, translator, author, and speaker, she is instrumental in campaigning for equal rights for Buddhist nuns.

Born in Holzminden, Germany to a Protestant family, Roloff was active in her local Christian youth group. When she was 18 years old, the suicide of a friend's family member caused Roloff to question God and life. Doubting the source of suffering, Roloff recalls that she "couldn't get any satisfactory answers from Christian ministers." As a result, she turned to the Buddhist philosophy and began her Buddhist studies and life in 1980, aged 21. She travelled to Dharamsala, India in order to study Vajrayana Buddhism and the Tibetan language, before becoming a novice at the age of 22—one of the first Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Germany. Her ordination as a novice was performed by Geshe Thubten Ngawang on 22 September 1981 at the Tibetan Centre Hamburg. Geshe Thubten was also her spiritual teacher until his death in 2003. On 6 December 1985, Roloff received her full ordination into the Dharmaguptaka lineage at the Miao-tung monastery in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She kept her novice name Jampa Tsedroen. In Tibetan, Jampa means "maitrī" "loving kindness" (Pali: mettā) and "Tsedroen" means "lamp of life". While being ordained in the Dharmagupta tradition, Roloff is practising in the Tibetan Mulasarvastivada tradition.

Following her ordination, Roloff became active in translation, in the management of the Tibetan Centre in Hamburg, and in campaigning for equal opportunities for nuns. As well as English and her native German, she is fluent in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali. With the help of her teacher Geshe Thubten, Roloff translated the sojong vows for bhiksunis into English, thereby greatly aiding Western Tibetan nuns in the ritual. Further aiding the research and study of students around the world, Roloff helped digitise scripture and other Buddhist texts. Roloff is also a Tibetologist and is working on her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Hamburg. In keeping with Buddhist practices, she helps refugees at the Tibetan Centre Hamburg and guides and teaches Buddhist students.

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