What do the nuns do every day? The nuns do much more than study and pray.
The seven nunneries in India that the Tibetan Nuns Project supports through our sponsorship program are complex institutions that require a lot of work to run smoothly. The largest of them, Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, functions like a non-sectarian monastic university and is home to almost 250 nuns plus staff. Just feeding that many people each day is a challenge.
This blog post is a photo essay showing some of the many tasks that the nuns at the various nunneries do in addition to their studies and their Buddhist practice.
Nuns with fodder for the cows.
Milking time at Dolma Ling Nunnery near Dharamsala. Photo courtesy of Brian Harris.
The nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute have been keeping cows for the past 20 years. The nuns have 7 milking cows, as well as five calves and two older cows. The cows provide milk to meet Dolma Ling’s daily needs. Many of the nuns grew up as nomads in Tibet, so daily milking presents no problem.
Growing food at Sherab Choeling Nunnery in Indian Himalayas. Photo courtesy of Olivier Adam.
At Sherab Choeling Nunnery in the remote Spiti Valley, the nuns work hard during the summer months to grow food for the long, harsh winter. Several years ago, people from the nearby village donated a piece of land to the nuns where they now grow spinach, beans, and potatoes. The nuns have three greenhouses where they mostly grow spinach. The head nun has also donated her share of a field to the nunnery so the nuns have also been able to grow peas and wheat.
Roasting barley for tsampa.
Nuns from Shugsep Nunnery prepare tsampa by roasting barley and then grinding it into flour. Tsampa is a staple of the Tibetan diet and is mixed with butter tea. There’s a tradition of throwing pinches of tsampa in the air during many Tibetan Buddhist rituals. Continue reading →
We wanted to share with our blog followers some special projects in India that we’re working on. Each year we receive various projects focused on sustaining Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, near Dharamsala, India.
Dolma Ling was officially inaugurated in December 2005 and has increased in size and is now home to about 250 nuns. The nunnery was built by the Tibetan Nuns Project and is unique for its size and scope of education.
Dolma Ling Nunnery functions as a non-sectarian monastic university and provides the opportunity for nuns to study for higher degrees, including the Geshema degree, equivalent to a doctorate in Tibetan Buddhism.
While much of the maintenance and chores to keep the building sound and the nunnery running smoothly are done by the nuns themselves, like any large residential institution, there are some projects that need outside support.
We currently have six projects that the nuns need help with in order to keep Dolma Ling running smoothly:
Call our office in Seattle, US at 1-206-652-8901 (Monday-Friday, 8-4)
Mail a check to:
The Tibetan Nuns Project
815 Seattle Boulevard South #216
Seattle, WA 98134 USA
(Please include a note about how you wish your gift to be used.)
Saga Dawa is a very important month in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar. This year, Saga Dawa, the fourth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, started on May 7th and runs until June 5th 2016.
The 15th day of the lunar month, the full moon day, is called Saga Dawa Düchen. Düchen means “great occasion” and this day is the single most holy day of the year for Buddhists. This year Saga Dawa Düchen falls on May 21 2016. In other Buddhist traditions it is known as Vesak or is sometimes as Buddha Day. Saga Dawa Düchen commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death (parinirvana) of Buddha Shakyamuni.
A young Tibetan Buddhist nun at Dolma Ling Nunnery reads scriptures to mark Saga Dawa. Photo courtesy of Tenzin Sangmo.
Since 1999, the United Nations has marked this sacred Buddhist day each year with a special message from the UN Secretary General. The UN Vesak page states, “Vesak, the Day of the Full Moon in the month of May, is the most sacred day to millions of Buddhists around the world. It was on the Day of Vesak two and a half millennia ago, in the year 623 B.C., that the Buddha was born. It was also on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha attained enlightenment, and it was on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha in his eightieth year passed away.”
This month twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns are making history as they take their fourth and final round of examinations for the Geshema degree. Those who pass will receive their degrees in December 2016 from His Holiness the Dalai Lama at a special ceremony in India.
The Geshe degree (Geshema for women) is equivalent to a Doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy and is the highest level of training in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.
A Geshema candidate on day 1 of the Geshema examinations being held this year at Geden Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala, India. Photo courtesy of Venerable Delek Yangdron.
Once only open to men, the opportunity to get the Geshe degree was opened to women in 2012. The Geshema examinations represent a huge milestone for Tibetan Buddhist nuns and this batch of 20 nuns will be the first Tibetan women with this highest degree in the history of Tibet.
This year’s Geshema examinations are being held at Geden Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala, India from May 1 to 12th 2016. Continue reading →
Did you know that you can visit the Tibetan Nuns Project website to request special prayers, also known as pujas, to be said by the nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery in India on your behalf?
The nuns regularly perform a variety of pujas and also offer butter lamps for the benefit of others. People around the world can sponsor or request pujas in honor of a friend, family member, or even an animal who may be suffering from obstacles, ill health, or who has passed away.
This photo shows nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in northern India saying sponsored prayers in 2013. Photo courtesy of Brian Harris
There are many different types of prayers or pujas to choose from, ranging from offering 100 butter lamps to the elaborate “Twenty-one Praises of Tara” which includes 100,000 recitations of the “Twenty-one Praises to Tara” prayer, renowned for removing obstacles and fulfilling wishes.
Tibetan nuns preparing ritual offerings for a special puja.
Here’s a chance for you to take a trip behind the scenes at some of the Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in India that are supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project.
Whether the nunnery is large or small, there are many tasks or chores that the nuns must do to ensure that they are as self-sufficient as possible and to make sure that the nunneries function smoothly and are well maintained.
Collage of some of the many tasks of the nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery in India, in addition to their studies and prayers.
In terms of regular tasks, one could view a nunnery as something like a cross between a very large household and a university or college. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of chores that need to be done each day, week, month, and year in order to keep everything running like a well-oiled machine. Continue reading →
The nuns who live at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute near Dharamsala, India now have an expanded kitchen facility thanks to the generosity of some very special donors.
The old kitchen at the nunnery was initially built in 1993 when there were just 82 nuns. Slowly, over time, the number of nuns more than tripled to 240 plus 40 staff so it was no longer large enough to adequately prepare food for that number of people.
To try to cope, the nuns, in 2001, took over a ground floor classroom as a vegetable storeroom and cutting room. The space was very cramped and the classroom that served as a kind of kitchen extension was sorely needed by the expanding education program.
Enter some very generous donors who made the nuns dream of a new kitchen a reality. We’re excited to show you these photos and a little video.
The front of the new kitchen showing the solar panels for hot water. By extending the kitchen forward into the courtyard, an additional 750 square feet of functional space was added.
In the spring of 2015 we sought funding for the kitchen extension project. Our donors have helped the nuns solve many problems at once. Not only do the nuns have much more space for preparing and storing food, but by moving the solar panels and water tanks the nunnery has been able to solve problems with maintenance and leakage.
The ground floor of the kitchen extension is a purpose-built space for the storage and preparation of vegetables and supplies. The nuns follow a vegetarian diet.
The nuns also make tofu each week to supply the nunnery kitchen and to sell to other monastic institutions and local people to raise some funds for the nunnery.
Nuns working in the spacious new kitchen at Dolma Ling. The nuns have 3 meals a day and all the cooking is done by the nuns themselves.
The head cook is always busy and the kitchen is kept spotless. The nuns rotate in and out of kitchen duties so everyone participates. Breakfast preparations begin as early as 3 a.m. Lunch is the main meal of the day and is often rice, two kinds of vegetables, dal, and sometimes fruit. Dinner is often a noodle soup and maybe a steamed bun.
Born into a simple family in eastern Tibet, Lobsang Dolkar, became a nun in her teens. With no opportunity to study, she spent her days in household chores and tending livestock. Being a nun meant reciting mantras and doing prostrations.
Venerable Lobsang Dolkar, one of the first Dolma Ling nuns
When her brother married, she became free to make a pilgrimage to Lhasa where she made friends with another nun. They decided to go to India to attend
the 1990 Kalachakra being given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Caught twice crossing into Nepal and handed back to the Chinese, their third attempt was successful.
Lobsang Dolker had not planned to stay in India, but her friend convinced her it was no use returning to Tibet and they should instead enroll in the newly founded nunnery, Dolma Ling.
She is among the first batch of nuns who entered the study program and at the same time helped with its construction. It was a joyous moment in 1994 when they moved into newly constructed rooms and had a home in India. Sadly she did not see her parents again; they passed away two years ago.
When she began her studies, it was hard for her to grasp what was being taught since she had had no previous education. But she never gave up. She feels that the opportunity to earn the Geshema Degree is very special and is grateful to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his continuous support of nuns’ education. Access to this degree encourages nuns to persevere.
Lobsang says that, in the beginning, she was scared to sit the Geshema exams, but she never thought of backing out because she did not want younger nuns to accept failure without trying hard for their degree. In May she successfully passed Year 2 of the four-year exams. All being well, she will be a Geshema in 2017.
Looking back on how far she has come, Lobsang appreciates the importance
of education and is grateful to all the teachers and staff for their dedication to the nuns.
We are looking for more sponsors. You can sponsor a nun for less that $1 a day and help provide food, education, shelter and health care. 100% of your sponsorship gifts go to India. Learn more at https://tnp.org/youcanhelp/sponsor/
Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute is a unique center of higher learning for Tibetan Buddhist nuns in India.
On December 8, 2015 we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of Dolma Ling by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We also celebrate the powerful vision and mission behind this special institution, the many supporters who made it possible, and the nuns themselves for their bravery and dedication.
Dolma Ling Nunnery was started in 1991 to meet the needs of the many nuns who fled Tibet in search of the freedom to study and practice their religion.
Newly arrived nuns in India. The Tibetan Nuns Project and Dolma Ling Nunnery were created in response to a huge influx of nuns who arrived in India after escaping from Tibet. These nuns had made the arduous journey by foot over the Himalayas, and were ill and exhausted. Existing nunneries were already overcrowded.
Dolma Ling is fully funded by the Tibetan Nuns Project and was one of the first institutions dedicated specifically to higher Buddhist education for Tibetan Buddhist nuns from all traditions. Currently about 250 nuns live and study at Dolma Ling.
The Story of Dolma Ling Nunnery
Dolma Ling is set in a serene area of the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh at the foothills of the Himalayas. The nunnery is surrounded by green terraced wheat and rice fields and has beautiful views up towards the snowy mountain peaks of the nearby Dhauladhar range. The town of Dharamsala, home to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration is about 20-minutes drive from Dolma Ling.
The nuns themselves took part in the construction of the nunnery, laboring to carry bricks and mortar, to dig the foundations, and to landscape and create the lush flower gardens that are a refuge for birds and insects. Photo courtesy of Jessica Tampas
Nuns working in the temporary kitchen during the construction of Dolma Ling Nunnery. As the nunnery was being built, the nuns lived first in tents and then in a rented house. Many of their activities, such as their studies, took place outdoors.
Construction of Dolma Ling began in 1993 and took nearly 13 years to fully complete. The nuns moved into the first buildings in 1994. His Holiness the Dalai Lama first visited in 1995 and encouraged the nuns in their studies. Upon its completion, he returned to Dolma Ling to officially inaugurate it on December 8, 2005.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his first visit to Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in 1995
The red and white buildings of the nunnery are constructed around a central courtyard that is the main hub of the nunnery. The focal building is the temple, which contains the prayer hall and library. Six two-story buildings linked by verandas and courtyards serve as housing and classrooms, in addition to an infirmary, kitchen, dining hall, and solar bath house.
Nuns gather in the courtyard each morning for prayers, announcements and the singing of the Tibetan national anthem. For a sense of life at Dolma Ling, see our video “A Day in the Life at Dolma Ling Nunnery”.
Education at Dolma Ling
Dolma Ling Institute and Nunnery is unique in that it offers a 19-year curriculum of traditional Buddhist philosophy and debate along with modern courses in Tibetan language, English, mathematics, and computer skills.
Dolma Ling is open to those from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and is the first of its kind to offer this sort of education to Tibetan women. The nunnery is officially non-sectarian and has teachers from different traditions.
A panorama of part of Dolma Ling Nunnery taken by Brian Harris
Upon graduation from the 19-year program, the nuns will be thoroughly trained in their Buddhist tradition and will be eligible to receive a Geshema degree, equivalent to a Ph.D. The first Tibetan Geshemas are due to graduate in 2016 after a rigorous 4-year examination process.
In addition to traditional and modern education, the nuns are also provided with skills training so that they can become more self-sufficient and generate income for the nunnery, reducing the need for outside support. The nunnery has various income generating projects such as our annual calendar with photos by the nuns, the nuns’ café which opened in 2015, the tailoring section that makes prayer flags and handmade dolls, and the tofu kitchen which provides fresh tofu for the Dolma Ling nuns.
Educating women is powerful. It’s not just about books. As we’ve shown at Dolma Ling Nunnery and the other six nunneries we support, it is also about helping nuns acquire the skills they need to run their own institutions and create models for future success and expansion. It’s about enabling the nuns to be teachers in their own right and to take on leadership roles at a critical time in their nation’s history.
Major New Project Coming Soon to Dolma Ling
The Tibetan Nuns Project is working to develop plans for a major new project at Dolma Ling Nunnery, a study center that will focus particularly on laywomen, Tibetan and non-Tibetan, who wish to seriously study Buddhism.
In the past many have expressed interest in studying the philosophical texts just as the nuns do, but could not be readily accommodated in the nunneries. We seek to establish a center at Dolma Ling so that laywomen can have a safe environment within the nunnery grounds in which to live, study and practice. The study center will also provide accommodation and facilities for visiting nuns during the annual inter-nunnery debate session and during the Geshema exams. We will share more information about this exciting new project in 2016 as plans are finalized!
Our thanks
Thank you to our supporters worldwide who have helped turn a big idea into reality.
The situation in Tibet remains very alarming. The religion and culture is under tremendous threat. Nunneries are under surveillance and, in one case this year, many nuns were expelled and their nunnery was destroyed.
The nuns and the nunneries that you are supporting with your donations to the Tibetan Nuns Project are a beacon of hope for the future.
With the power of an idea, together we have created something that once seemed almost impossible—institutions and educational systems for Buddhist women that have the potential to transform generations to come.
This summer the nuns at Dolma Ling requested help to purchase a new truck that would allow them to manage their many transportation tasks.
Thanks to a special anonymous donor and to Alicia, Margaret, Karen, Swetlana, and Robert, we were able to purchase the small, multi-purpose truck. This blog post shows the nuns, through video and photos taken by the nuns themselves, on some of their many recent expeditions.
The nuns leave for shopping
With 240 nuns at the nunnery, the nuns must travel often to buy vegetables and other food, as well as supplies for the their small shop, the nunnery’s tailoring section, for the tofu-making facility, and for the paper-recycling section. Continue reading →
