Mary Finnigan's new biography of Zina Rachevsky follows the extraordinary life journey of a strong-willed woman born almost a hundred years ago who transformed herself from a Hollywood starlet and supposed Russian princess into one of the world's first western-born Tibetan Buddhist nuns.
Zina Rachevsky's wild and eccentric life began in Paris in 1930, her mother heiress to an American banking fortune, her father a Russian Tsarist émigré, an ex-army captain with royal connections who narrowly escaped the Bolshevik revolution. She was raised amid the glitter of the artistic and aristocratic elite in 1950s high-society Paris, New York, Hollywood and the Cote d'Azur.
At 16 she was already a celebrity, chosen at a lavish Hollywood party as the most beautiful woman of the season and Princess Palm Beach. By 21 she had been pregnant, had an abortion, attempted suicide, had innumerable lovers, a lesbian relationship, worked as a model, and married a French aristocrat. Her outrageous exploits provided prime material for the gossip columns as she continued her globe-trotting life while bearing two children.
Her spiritual awakening began with her discovery of Theosophy, a late 19th-century esoteric tradition enjoying a revival amid the cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Tiring of her life as a bohemian socialite always on the edge of disaster, she suddenly left Europe for the last time and headed for Nepal to launch her quest for enlightenment. She proceeded to direct her formidable energy into serious contemplative practice.
Though almost penniless, she raised enough credit to cofound, with two Buddhist holymen, a centre where westerners could study and practice and young Sherpa monks could receive spiritual teachings. She had finally created a setting where she could pledge herself to breaking through the barriers of an ego-driven life to seek the ultimate emancipation promised by Buddhist teachings. Zina was a trailblazer who changed lives to become one of the first small group of westerners ordained as Tibetan Buddhist celibate monastics. She died from an intestinal infection in her beloved monastery at the age of 43.