Ven Rita Riniker (Lobsang Palmo)

Born in 1950, Ven Rita grew up in Switzerland. She ran her own restaurant business for many years, then traveled to Nepal where she met Buddhism at Kopan Monastery in 1990.

Ven Rita has been ordained for over 12 years - she took ordination in 1991 with her main teacher, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. Since then she has been based primarily in India at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, initially studying at the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives for 6 years and more recently offering service as one of the centre’s primary teachers of Tushita’s famous “Introduction to Buddhism” courses.

Ven Rita has led and guided many retreats including five 3-month Vajrasattva retreats, Green Tara retreats and a 2-month Lam Rim Chen Mo retreat with teachings by Yangsi Rinpoche in 2000. Ven Rita is especially well known for leading Nyung Naes, having completed more than 80 consecutive Nyung Naes over a period of 6 months in 1998.

Rita has also been teaching in Europe for many years and has made several teaching tours to Israel and more recently the USA, Australia and New Zealand.