Tamara (Tammy) Myoho Gabrysch is a qualified Zen teacher in the White Plum Zen lineage, enthusiastic Zen cook (tenzo) and artist. She has a degree in the Fine Arts and uses her visual training for food, photography and painting.

She began cooking for Zen retreats not long after starting to study under Genpo Merzel Roshi at the Kanzeon Zen Center, Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1988.
Myoho and her husband, Anton Tenkei Coppens, established “Zen River”, a Zen meditation training temple in The Netherlands, in 2002. There they maintain a daily meditation schedule and run retreats with a group of dedicated practitioners. In between trips to Japan and the USA, she continues to cook for everyone at Zen River several days a week, happily painting away with the vast array of herbs and spices tucked inside the kitchen cupboards.

Myoho is a contributing author to “The Hidden Lamp”, a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day. (Compiled and edited by Florence Caplow and Sue Moon. Wisdom publications, 2014.)

She is a granddaughter of Alexander Werth (4 February 1901 – 5 March 1969) who was a Russian-born, naturalized British writer, journalist, and war correspondent. Russia at War, 1941-1945 was one of many historical books he wrote during his lifetime.