Lama Tsultrim Allione is founder and resident lama of Tara Mandala, located  in Colorado.  She traveled to India in her late teens and at the age of twenty-two, was the first western woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun. After living in the Himalayan region for several years she returned her vows and became the mother of three, while continuing to study and practice Buddhism. She has been awarded the international “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” by a panel of distinguished scholars and practitioners in Bangkok, Thailand. She is author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons and her new book Wisdom Rising: A Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine.