Smart, Successful, and Sassy, Yet She Chose to Be a Nun: Venerable Thubten Damcho’s Story

by | May 17, 2025 | Buddhism.net Blog, Meng & Friends

Ruby Pan was smart, successful, and sassy. She was awarded a full scholarship to study in Princeton University, where she won accolade after accolade. She graduated with a good job, good pay, boyfriends, and a bright future. Yet she was miserable. Today, she is Venerable Thubten Damcho, “no hair, wearing weird clothes”, and she is very happy.

In this episode of Meng & Friends, Venerable Damcho tells the funny, heart-warming, and inspiring story of how Ruby Pan found true happiness despite worldly success, and became Venerable Thubten Damcho.

Chade-Meng Tan

Meng is an award-winning engineer, international bestselling author, movie producer and philanthropist. His work has been nominated eight times for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Read Meng's story)

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