Category Archives: Events

Nuns at annual Jang Gonchoe debate session give presentation to His Holiness the Dalai Lama

On October 31 nuns from seven nunneries who were taking part in the annual inter-nunnery debate, the Jang Gonchoe, gathered at the main temple in Dharamsala and gave a special debate presentation to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.Tibetan Nuns, Buddhist nuns, debate, Buddhist Tibet, Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, Tibetan Nuns Project

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the nuns’ Jang Gonchoe debate session. Prior to 1995 the Jang Gonchoe was open only to monks, but now Tibetan Buddhist nuns are building their own strong tradition of debate.

According to a report on the event on the Dalai Lama’s website, His Holiness addressed the nuns and congratulated them twice, noting that there are nuns who have almost completed their study of Buddhist philosophy and who will take their final exams to qualify as Geshemas next year. The Geshema degree is the equivalent to a doctorate in Tibetan Buddhist studies.

Jang Gonchoe, Tibetan Buddhist nuns, Buddhist debate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Nuns Project

His Holiness the Dalai Lama addressing nuns gathered for the annual debate session. Photo/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke at some length about the importance of reason and understanding in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He told the nuns, “This is the 21st century and we need to understand the Buddha’s teachings in the light of reason. When we teach, we need to do so on the basis of reason. I’ve met followers of the Pali tradition, monks from Thailand who are scrupulous in their observance of Vinaya [the monastic rules for monks and nuns]. I asked them whether they explain the Four Noble Truths according to reason or citing scriptural authority. They answered that they rely on the authority of scripture.” Continue reading

Breaking News: Third Round Geshema Exam Results Are In

The much-anticipated Geshema Exam results have just arrived. The results have been sent to the respective nunneries and have been announced to all the nuns.

The third round of Geshema Examinations took place from May 1-12, 2015 at Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Mundgod in southern India. 37 Tibetan nuns took part in this round of examinations split as: Continue reading

Tibetan nuns celebrate His Holiness’s 80th birthday

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday on July 6th was celebrated by Tibetans all over the world with great excitement and prayers for his good health and long life.

Nuns offering prayer scarves to portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Nuns offering prayer scarves to portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

At Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, home to over 230 nuns, the day started at 6 am with everyone —  the nuns, teachers and all the staff — seated in the prayer hall at 6 for tsok and offerings of khataks (prayer scarves) to His Holiness.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns incense offering

At 7 am they had sangsol (incense offering) after which breakfast was served in the nuns’ dining hall.

Tibetan nuns playing games on His Holiness birthdayAfter this everyone enjoyed the morning playing outdoor games such as a relay race, a tug-of-war between different groups of nuns, staff, and teachers, a game musical chairs, a sack race and other competitions and games such as the bursting of a balloon tied on another person’s ankle.

Buddhist nuns playing tug of war Dalai Lama birthday

For lunch a beautiful vegetarian meal was served. This was then followed by a open quiz competition in philosophy, general knowledge, English and Tibetan. The person with the correct answer was given a surprise gift.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns playing musical chairs

Tibetan Buddhist nuns playing musical chairs as part of the day of celebration for His Holiness’s birthday.

All around the courtyard area we could see nuns and staff enjoying games such as badminton, cricket, and football.

Judging the annual flower competition on July 2nd, Universal Prayer Day

Judging the annual flower competition on July 2nd, Universal Prayer Day

Dinner which was served at 7pm and the winner of the annual flower competition, held on July 2nd, was called and given her prize. On July 2nd, Universal Prayer Day, the old debate courtyard at the nunnery was filled with beautiful potted flowers placed in-front of portraits of His Holiness. Scoring for the competition was done by the teachers.

Tibetan nuns annual flower competition 2015
After dinner everyone gathered together and the nuns showcased little dramas that they had prepared for the occasion and then the floor was open to anyone to show their talent.

flower competition by Buddhist nuns

Saga Dawa

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 19th 2015 and will run until June 16th. The 15th day of the lunar month, the full moon day, is called Saga Dawa Düchen and this year it falls on June 2nd. Düchen means “great occasion” and this day is the single most holy day of Tibetan Buddhism.

Like the Theravadin observance of Vesak, Saga Dawa Düchen commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death parinirvana of Buddha Shakyamuni. Buddhist communities all over the world consider this a very sacred time of the year. People make extra efforts to practice more generosity, virtue, compassion, better temperament and conduct, in order to accumulate greater merit.

Saga Dawa is known as the month of merits. Tibetan Buddhists believe that during this month, the merits of ones actions are multiplied, and that on the 15th day of the month the merits of ones actions are hugely increased.

The nuns at the seven nunneries supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project all mark Saga Dawa in special ways and we will be sharing photos and news of the 2015 celebrations via this blog and our Facebook page as soon as possible after June 2nd.

Buddhist nun reading sacred texts

A nun at Dolma Ling Nunnery reads part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon during Saga Dawa in 2013.

Practices undertaken during this month include:

  • praying and reciting of mantras
  • lighting of butter lamps
  • making pilgrimages to holy places
  • refraining from eating meat
  • saving animals from slaughter and releasing them
  • making prostrations and circumambulations
  • giving money to beggars

It is considered a time of the year when our one positive act of kindness is multiplied a million times over to accumulate good merit.

In the meantime, here’s a description of some of the usual practices by Tibetan Buddhist in general and by the nuns in particular. For instance, every year, during the month of Saga Dawa, over a period of several days, the 240 nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute read the entire Tibetan Buddhist canon or Kangyur, the 108 volumes of the spoken words of the Buddha. Because this month includes some of the holiest days in the Buddhist calendar, the nuns believe they can accumulate more merit by doing such practices at this time. Butter lamps will also be lit during the full moon and everyone will try to practice positive deeds during the full month.

Buddhist nuns reading Buddha's words

Nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery reading the words of the Buddha to celebrate Saga Dawa in 2013.

On this day many individuals from the monastic and lay communities also take Thikchen Tsochung. His Holiness at the main temple gives the vow if he is in town during the year or it is given by a Khenpo or Geshe. The vows are to follow the eight Mahayana precepts for 24 hours. Individuals taking this vow take just one meal that day mainly lunch that has to be taken before noon and once one has stopped the meal it is considered finished. One can drink water or light drinks but not whole milk, thick juice with pulp etc.

Buddhist nun and Tibetan texts

Reading the entire Tibetan Buddhist canon takes several days. This photo was taken on the second morning of the Saga Dawa readings in 2013 and shows the sacred texts carefully wrapped and stacked.

In Dolma Ling nunnery many nuns eat only twice a day during this month. Nuns refrain from eating any solid food after finishing their lunch. They can drink water and are served light tea (with little milk) at 6 p.m.

At Tilokpur Nunnery, the nuns participate in a number of pujas such as the Nyugney puja, Vajra puja, Avalokiteshvara mantra, Guru Rinpoche puja, Green Tara puja, Phakmo Dakini puja. The nuns also do prostrations and offer thousands of butter lamps during the month. The other nunneries like Geden Choling also do the Nyugney puja (fasting).

From the Nunnery Kitchens: Tibetan Nuns Making Tofu

There’s something special cooking in the kitchens of Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in northern India.

For the past several years, the nuns at Dolma Ling have made tofu once a week to supply the nunnery kitchen for meals. There are a lot of mouths to feed at the nunnery, so being able to make tofu in-house is very important. Currently there are over 230 Tibetan Buddhist nuns who live at Dolma Ling Nunnery and there are also teachers and visitors. The nuns follow a vegetarian diet and tofu is a nutritious and protein-rich part of their weekly menu.

Tibetan nuns making tofu

Nuns in 2013 making tofu at Dolma Ling Nunnery. Photo courtesy of Brian Harris.

The nuns also sell any extra tofu to visitors and the local community to help support the nunnery. This generates a bit of income for the nunnery but, so far the demand for tofu has  outstripped supply because the nuns’ had a limited capacity to make tofu due to the size of their tofu kitchen and the capacity of their tofu-making machine.

Here’s a video made in 2012 by the nuns showing tofu making at the nunnery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgygQy9SaOE&feature=share

It has been the nuns’ wish for several years to purchase a larger tofu machine and to have a new tofu kitchen so that tofu could be made and sold on a larger scale. There is a great demand for tofu from nearby communities so the income from tofu sales will help to support the nunnery.

The new facility for making tofu was built a while ago but the donor who had originally offered to provide a special tofu-making machine was unable to raise the necessary funds to purchase and ship the machine to India. So the project was delayed by almost two years.

We are delighted to tell you that this spring, Norman Steinberg, a generous donor from Canada, has helped fulfill the nuns’ long-term wish by funding the purchase of a much larger and more efficient tofu-making machine and by helping to establish a special tofu kitchen at the nunnery. We are extremely grateful for his support.

A big advantage of the recent donation is that it has allowed the Tibetan Nuns Project to purchase an Indian-made machine, so we’ve avoided the costly customs and shipping costs and it will also be easier to service and repair in the future.

Once the new machine is up and running and the tofu kitchen is firmly established, we’ll post another blog with photos.

Making tofu is somewhat similar to making cheese, but rather than curdling milk you are curdling soy milk. The first step in the process is to soak the dried soybeans and mix them with water to produce soy milk.

Tibetan Buddhist nun making tofu

Soybeans are being prepared in the old tofu kitchen at Dolma Ling Nunnery. This photo was taken in 2013 by Brian Harris.

Next the nuns add enzymes or acid to curdle the soybean liquid. Then they press the liquid to remove the liquid whey. Once there are just curds remaining they can be pressed into forms and cut into blocks.

The Tibetan Nuns Project is extremely grateful to Norman Steinberg and another private donor from Canada, as well as other individual donors from around the world who made the new tofu-making facility possible.

If you would like to learn more about how the nuns are moving towards greater self-sufficiency, or to help fund these efforts, please contact us at info@tnp.org or donate at https://tnp.org/youcanhelp/donate/.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns stirring to make tofu

Photo taken in 2013 by Brian Harris at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in India

 

Tibetan Losar Prayers and Ceremonies in Dharamsala

This is a guest post about Tibetan Losar celebrations at two Buddhist nunneries in India by Dominique Butet and with photos by Olivier Adam.

Last month, on 19 February 2015, my partner Olivier Adam and I participated in the ceremonies for Tibetan New Year or Losar at Geden Choeling Nunnery in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala in northern India.

In the very early morning, at 3:30 a.m., the 135 nuns of the nunnery were already sitting in the temple, beginning their Losar puja or prayers with great dedication.

We shared cups of traditional Tibetan salty butter tea with the nuns. Then two nuns brought the offering of tsampa (roasted barley flour) around to everyone so that we could celebrate the start of the new year by throwing tsampa into the air and wishing everyone “Losar Tashi Delek” (Happy New Year) with pure, joyful smiles.

Buddhist Nuns chemar Losar ceremony

Two nuns carry a chamar bo, an open, decorated box with one half filled with chamar, made of roasted barley flour or tsampa and the other half filled with roasted barley. People are invited to take a pinch of the chemar then offer a blessing with three waves of the hand in the air, then taking a nibble. Photo courtesy of Olivier Adam.

Inside the temple, the sound of the prayers grew to fill the entire space and the nuns’ voices were accompanied by bells and Tibetan hand drums (damaru). We were each served sweet rice with dry fruits, followed by a delicious tsampa soup served with all sorts of nuts and dates. Just as sweet tea was brought to the temple, we were also each given the authentic khapse, the deep-fried pastries served at Losar. They come in all sizes, but the ones we were given looked like two big open ears! (You can learn more about khapse by reading this Tibetan Nuns Project blog about these New Year’s cookies.)  Continue reading

Award-winning artist Miya Ando auctions paintings for Buddhist nuns

Artist Miya Ando donates prayer flag paintings to Tibetan Nuns Prohect

Award-winning artist Miya Ando

Miya Ando, the renowned New York artist, has created a special series of paintings that will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Tibetan Nuns Project, a registered charity based in Seattle and India.

All proceeds of the sale of the paintings, after the small fees from the auction house, will be donated by the artist to the Tibetan Nuns Project and will be used to provide food, shelter, education and health care to over 700 Tibetan Buddhist nuns living in seven nunneries in northern India.

Her five prayer flag paintings on metal will be auctioned over a two-week period from March 8-23 2015. The launch of the auction will coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8th.

The online auction where the paintings may be viewed is at http://paddle8.com/auction/tibetan The auction opens on March 8 and closes on March 23 2015.

This is the second time that the award-winning artist has created a series of paintings in support of the Tibetan Nuns Project. As one journalist has noted, Ando works in cold steel, but her heart is warm and compassionate. Continue reading

Tibetan New Year Cookies or Khapse

A special part of any Tibetan New Year or Losar celebration is the eating of khapse, deep fried Tibetan cookies. This blog post will give you a glimpse of Dolma Ling Nunnery in India and the some of the preparations by the nuns for Losar. In the days leading up to Losar, the Tibetan nuns, like Tibetan lay people all over the world, will be working hard to prepare large batches of these crispy cookies.

making Tibetan khapse

Tibetan Buddhist nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India making khapse for Tibetan New Year. Photo from the Tibetan Nuns Project 2014.

Khapse (or khapsay) means literally “mouth-eat” and they are a staple of Tibetan New Year’s celebrations everywhere. While these biscuits are made for other celebrations as well, such as weddings and religious events such as the enthronement of a lama, it’s at Tibetan New Year that they are ubiquitous.

nuns making Tibetan khapse

Nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery making khapse for Tibetan New Year 2014

The dough for the khapse is usually made with flour, eggs, butter and sugar. It is then rolled out and made into different shapes and sizes. The most common shape is the small twisted rectangular pieces which are served to guests.

Tibetan khapse made by nuns

Tibetan khapse ready for frying. This shape is made by cutting the dough into a narrow rectangle and then making a slit in the middle. Then one side of the khapse is pulled through.

Larger and more elaborate shapes are made as well, including the so-called Donkey Ears or bhungue amcho (also known as khugo). These are large elongated hollow tubes of crispy pastry that are stacked up on the Losar altar as both a food offering and as a decoration. Strings of dried Tibetan cheese are draped over the top.

Losar khapse

Stacks of a special type of khapse made by the nuns decorate the Losar altar at Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India. Photo from the Tibetan Nuns Project 2014.

Traditionally, khapse would be deep fried in butter or mustard oil, but in exile the nuns use corn oil. The deep frying give the cookies their distinctive light brown or yellow color.

frying khapse for Tibetan New Year

Inside the nunnery kitchen at Dolma Ling, the nuns fry large batches of khapse in big vats of hot oil.

You can make khapse at home. For a recipe for Tibetan khapse, visit our friends at YoWangdu Tibetan Culture. Happy Losar!

 

Vegetarian guthuk soup: A recipe for Tibetan New Year

To celebrate Losar or Tibetan New Year, we want to share with you a vegetarian recipe for the very popular Tibetan noodle soup, called guthuk. This special soup is eaten on the night of the 29th day of the 12th month, or the eve of Losar.

We’d like to thank our friends, Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Experience Tibet (www.yowangdu.com) for sharing this recipe with us. They have many wonderful Tibetan recipes on their website.

Guthuk is the only Tibetan food that is eaten only once a year as part of a ritual of dispelling any negativities of the old year and to make way for an auspicious new one. The base of the soup is actually a common noodle soup called thukpa bhatuk, but at the end of the year, this daily favorite is transformed into a special dish that is also a bit of a game.

Tibetan guthuk soup

Vegetarian guthuk soup. Photo and recipe courtesy of YoWangdu.com

Guthuk gets its name from the Tibetan word gu meaning nine and thuk which refers generally to noodle soups, so guthuk is the soup eaten on the 29th day. The gu part of the name also comes from the fact that the soup traditionally has at least nine ingredients. In this vegetarian version of guthuk, the nine main ingredients are mushrooms, celery, labu (daikon radish), peas, tomato, onion, ginger, garlic, and spinach. A traditional guthuk would include meat (yak or beef) and dried cheese. Continue reading

Daughters of Buddha Etsy campaign with photographs of nuns

In November 2014, the acclaimed French photographer, Olivier Adam, set up a special Etsy shop, an online store called “Daughters of Buddha” dedicated to supporting the Tibetan Nuns Project.

The Daughters of Buddha online store sells fine art prints and postcards with 50% of the sales of all the articles sold going to Tibetan Nuns Project.

Olivier Adam has made available a large collection of stunning color photographs of the Tibetan Buddhist nuns, photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other inspiring spiritual images.

In this blog he shares some photos and answers some questions about his new campaign to support the nuns.

Q: Why did you start this Etsy campaign ?

A: On August 2014, an exhibition of my photographs “Tibetan Nuns – Resistance and Compassion” opened at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg, Germany. During the exhibition the museum has been selling postcards and fine art prints of my images. I had the idea to expand this opportunity in an online store to get a bigger audience for these wonderful nuns and to bring wider support to Tibetan Nuns Project. 

Olivier Adam and His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Photo of French photographer Olivier Adam showing his exhibition “”Tibetan Nuns – Resistance and Compassion” to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in August 2014 in Hamburg. Photo courtesy of Manuel Bauer.

The exhibition was visited and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his teachings in Hamburg in August and has now been extended until February 2015. It was such a precious moment in my life to have a few minutes with His Holiness Dalai Lama to explain this long-term project. Continue reading