Considering herself born to extremely understanding parents, Jean Ai confesses to being accident-prone as a young child, worrying her family by getting into all sorts of scrapes with scars to prove it. When she was not falling over, her nose would be buried in books, soaking up all of the life lessons that Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl could possibly provide.

A non-conformist by nature, her early ambitions included police officer, human rights lawyer, politician and Greenpeace volunteer. A trip to the oceanarium developed her teenage obsession of becoming a marine biologist. Her spare time thereafter was dedicated to studying the anatomy of cetaceans and the like. Her dream, however, was swiftly put to rest once she realised that proficiency in Chemistry was a requirement of the job, and her distinct disinterest in the subject proved to be an insurmountable stumbling block.

Upon her guru H.E. Tsem Rinpoche's advice, Jean Ai pursued a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Warwick. Having grown up under the Dharma umbrella however, Buddhism was never far from her life. Her predominant teenage memory is being taken to the Dharma centre to attend hours of pujas and talks that she could not comprehend. Undeterred by the strange happenings around her, she thought, “Well, if you can’t understand ‘em, join ‘em and learn more. Then, maybe one day you will understand.”

And "join em" she did. After a year working in London, Jean Ai returned to Malaysia to join Kechara on a full time basis. She now serves H.E Tsem Rinpoche directly as a member of Tsem Ladrang, and as an editor with the writers' team.

You can find more of her writing at www.elenakhong.com.