Ani Pachen (1933-2002), better known as 'Tibet's Warrior Nun', passed away on Saturday, 2 February, at her home in Dharamsala, India. She escaped into exile after 21 years in jail for leading her Khampa warriors against the Chinese army. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to hurt this sweet and tiny person. But people did hurt her... a lot and for a long time. Nevertheless, Ani Pachen la¹ had a smile to rival a sunrise. She endured the worst of human cruelty and triumphed, living and loving and vanquishing the darkness with a smile that shone from her enormous heart.

She was born the daughter of a chieftain in Tibet's eastern province of Kham. As a girl, she wanted to become a nun and devote herself to practising Dharma. Unfortunately, as the only child of a powerful and influential family, she was expected to follow a more worldly path, marrying and cementing the bonds of local family ties. Nevertheless, she persisted; and, eventually, her father agreed to let her join an aunt at a nearby nunnery.

Her dream had come true... but, sadly, it was not to last. The Chinese occupation of Eastern Tibet, and her father's death soon afterwards, forced Ani Pachen la to leave the nunnery and take up the fight.

The guerilla fighting in the mountains and valleys of eastern Tibet was ferocious. Whole villages had taken to the hills and were fighting desperately to survive. Chinese troops punished those who were left behind severely. The Khampas struck at supply caravans, camps, and whatever targets the Chinese offered. Inevitably though, the sheer weight of resources that the Chinese were able to bring to bear smothered the resistance. Many were killed, and many more were captured, as they struggled, half starved, towards the relative safety of central Tibet. Ani Pachen la was among those who were captured.

As Ani Pachen la had played a leading role in the resistance movement, she was dealt with harshly after the Chinese soldiers captured her. She spent 21 years in various prisons, being beaten and tortured. At first, she was the only female political prisoner. But soon many other women joined her. Very many of them were nuns, who had been arrested because they represented a challenge to Chinese authority in Tibet.

Ani Pachen la survived her ordeal in prison, and was eventually released. But tragedy was far from played out. Having survived the brutality and privation of prison life, she returned to her home village to find that nearly all of her friends and family were dead. Life on the outside had hardly been any better than life inside the prisons. All of Tibet was really one big prison, as Tibetans were forced to work for starvation rations, and were killed on the mere suspicion of political transgressions or 'backward thinking'.

After her release from prison in 1981, she continued to take part in protests for human rights and freedom. In 1988, fearful of being arrested again, Ani Pachen la decided to escape into exile, even though this would mean dragging her damaged body through some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world and risking certain death if she were to be caught. She trudged through deep snow for nearly a month, until she reached Nepal. Eventually, she succeeded in reaching Dharamsala, India, the home of the Dalai Lama and the government of Tibet in exile.

The first impression of Ani Pachen la was invariably how radiant she was. Her diminutive form seemed to glow with life. As one who has spent a significant part of her life suffering terrible, unimaginable hardships and heartbreaks she might easily be forgiven for becoming a shy and bitter introvert, showing a hard shell to the world that has treated her so cruelly. But this is far from the truth. Her smile was pure joy; her love and zest for life was unmistakable. This was a woman who had triumphed over evil.

Ani Pachen la continued to fight for truth and justice for Tibet until the day she died. She did so by travelling around the world, speaking to diverse audiences about her terrible experiences and the plight of the Tibetan people. Her autobiography Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior Nun² is a moving account of her life.