the 16 year old sister Bumey was present at the birth. The mother decided to guard Machig Labdron from the father, but the father decided to guard her as a family secret. Her elder brother was Shakya Gyaltsen, and another brother was born later. Machig Labdron began reciting mantra at three years of age, reading at five years, and at eight years of age could quickly recite the Prajnaparamita text "The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses". Machig Labdron was called "Ahdron" (the Light of Ah) and "Drontse" by the community, and referred to herself as "Rinchen Dronme". The local king gave her the name of Lapdron. At thirteen years of age, she began studying Buddhism with Geshe Aton alongside her sister, previously ordained as the nun Tontso Rinchen Bum. Her ability in the expositions of Prajanaparamita texts surpassed those of the Geshes and monks. After three years with Geshe Aton, he suggested Machig Labdron move to continue studies of Buddhism with Drapa Ngongshechen in Yoru Dratang, at the Dopthrang monastery, where she moved with her sister and lived as a renunciate after receiving lay practitioner vows and bodhisattva vows. She became Lama Drapa's official reader, and at sixteen years of age participated as a recitation chaplain while reciting the Prajnaparamita Sutras, or 'The Perfection of Wisdom', a Mahayana sutra, for lay people in their homes on behalf of her teacher. Young adulthood The namtar entitled Secret Biography of Machig Labdron relates the struggles that Machig Labdron underwent in order to avoid traditional marriage and eventually leave home to practice Buddhism as her life's calling. Machig Labdron's early teacher, Drapa Ngongshechen, gave her the reading transmissions for the Many Sutras, the Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Verses, in Twenty-Five Thousand Verses and in Eight Thousand Verses. She assimilated the sutras and commentaries, and realization arose. He asked her to stay for four years, after which he advised her to continue studies with Kyoton Sonam Lama. With her realizations, Machig Labdron began to cut attachments to places and started to travel and live spontaneously as a yogini, while eating what she found, sleeping wherever, and wearing clothes of a beggar. When she was twenty years of age, Sonam Lama conferred a series of empowerments on Machig Labdron at a temple in Ei Gangwa, during which her famous ultimate empowerments into the nature of reality from the sambhogakaya occurred.