Giving thanks: What our supporters say about the Tibetan Nuns Project

Through our online survey many people from around the world have shared their stories about how they learned about the Tibetan Nuns Project. They’ve also told us why the nuns and the Tibetan Nuns Project are important in their lives.

5 Tibetan Buddhist nuns hold a thank you sign in Tibetan and EnglishWe are so grateful to everyone who have shared their thoughts and ideas with us. Many of you have given us permission to share your words with a wider audience.

So today, in honor of US Thanksgiving, we give thanks to all our supporters around the world and share a small selection of their stories and words of kindness.

Sue in Alaska wrote: “My husband and I have been very pleased with the Tibetan Nuns Project as an organization over the years… We were fortunate to be able to travel to Dharamsala in 2006 with the Tibetan Nuns Project. It was an extraordinary trip and being able to meet the nun we had been sponsoring for over 8 years was an awesome experience. She showed us her room at the old Shugsep Nunnery and we shared photos from our home in Alaska with her. We really appreciated the work that TNP did to make the trip possible. In December 2010, we returned to Dharamsala for the inauguration of the new Shugsep Nunnery, presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was for us a once-in-a-life time experience. I support the Tibetan Nuns Project because my husband and I have seen the incredible work that TNP has done to benefit the nuns and the larger Tibetan refugee community of India. With a modest number of staff, TNP has accomplished so much, including the beautiful new nunneries of Dolma Ling and Shugsep.” Continue reading

One of the first Geshema nuns: The Story of Venerable Delek Wangmo

Venerable Delek Wangmo’s journey to the Geshema exams has been a long, arduous and sometimes dusty one.

She is one of the first batch of Tibetan nuns who are sitting the 4-part exams for the Geshema degree, equivalent to a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. The culmination of 17 years of rigorous study, this is  a level of scholarship and Buddhist training that was previously almost exclusively available to men.

Here is her story.

Venerable Delek Wangmo smiling

Venerable Delek Wangmo in her room at Dolma Ling Nunnery. This photo and the photograph below are both courtesy of Brian Harris.

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Report on the 2014 Jang Gonchoe Annual Inter-Nunnery Debate

The annual Jang Gonchoe, the inter-nunnery debate session held in October, brings together hundreds of nuns from different nunneries for an important educational opportunity that was once only open to monks.

Crowd of Tibetan Buddhist nuns at debate event in India

This debate session plays a great role in sharpening the nuns’ minds and preparing them for higher examinations, such as the Geshema exams, as they share their knowledge and debating skills among themselves.

This opportunity wasn’t always available to nuns. The first inter-nunnery debate session was held on September 20, 1995 in Dharamsala, India. This milestone for Tibetan Buddhist nuns was modeled on the Jang Gonchoe debate sessions of the great monastic institutions of Tibet. It was organized by the Department of Religion and Culture and was attended by nuns from 4 nunneries in India — Jangchup Choeling, Jamyang Choeling, Geden Choeling, and Dolma Ling. Continue reading

Tibetan Handicrafts Help Build Self-Sufficiency for the Nuns

A primary goal of the Tibetan Nuns Project is to help the nuns achieve more self-sufficiency through skill building and income-generating projects.

The range of projects varies for each nunnery of the 7 nunneries that we support. Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, located near Dharamsala, India and home to over 230 nuns, has the widest scope of projects including making and selling Tibetan handicrafts.

Buddhist nun in Dolma Ling Nunnery shop

Products made by the nuns are available for sale at the nunnery and through the Tibetan Nuns Project online store. Photo of the shop at Dolma Ling Nunnery courtesy of Brian Harris.

The tailoring program at Dolma Ling Nunnery had a modest start with a plan to make nuns robes so that the nuns wouldn’t have to go to the market and pay for the service.

Now the tailoring program has expanded greatly and is quite successful. There are two lay staff and a few nuns with good tailoring and sewing skills working in this section. All of the products are overseen by a Nuns’ Committee.

Here is an overview of some of the self-sufficiency projects that the nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, with the help of the Tibetan Nuns Project, have developed to generate income for the nunnery. All of the Tibetan handicraft products shown below are made by the nuns and specially blessed by them. They can be purchased through the nunnery’s shop and through our online store at tnp.org/products.

Tibetan Buddhist nun making prayer flags

The Tibetan Nuns Project sells a variety of types of prayer flags and four sizes – mini, small, medium and large. All the flags are handmade by the nuns in India and blessed by them.

 

Tibetan Prayer Flags

All prayer flags sold at the nunnery shop and through the TNP online store are made and blessed  by the nuns. The nuns do all the sewing of the different flags including Tara, Buddha, Guru and Wind Horse, ironing the creases and packaging personally. The flags come in small, medium and large sizes, as well as a set of mini prayer flags that have one syllable of the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra per flag.

Each set of prayer flags has five colors representing the different elements: blue for sky, white for clouds, red for space, green for water, and yellow for earth. People buy prayer flags and tie them at high mountains and trees at holy places. It is believed that when the wind blows the prayers are released thereby creating a peaceful atmosphere, warding off obstacles, and increasing luck.

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Tibetan Nun and Monk Dolls

Doll making has been very successful for the nuns. The nuns have become expert in hand sewing all the intricate details to make beautiful monk and nun dolls. Visitors to the nunnery show a lot of interest in buying them for household décor.

Tibetan door curtains

Tibetan Door Curtains

The nuns make beautiful traditional Tibetan door curtains using the sacred Tibetan Buddhist symbol of the endless knot. The endless knot design is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols in Tibetan Buddhism and represents the endless nature of Buddha’s wisdom and the Dharma. The nuns make two types of curtains: the simpler design has an endless knot in the center and the more elaborate design has applique decoration on all four corners.

Tibetan malas

Tibetan Malas or Prayer Beads

The nuns make a wide range of long malas and wrist malas. Each mala is hand strung, knotted and blessed by the nuns. The Tibetan Nuns Project sells 14 different types of long malas and wrist malas made from natural materials such as stone, wood and bone. The wrist malas are a variation of the standard 108-bead long malas and are very popular with visitors to the nunnery.

Tibetan mala bag

Tibetan Mala Bags

Mala bags made by the nuns are the perfect way to carry and protect your mala and to maintain its purity and potency. Each bag is handmade with a drawstring closure and is patterned on one side. The nuns make them in a range of colors and patterns and in two types of fabric: satin brocade and 100% woven cotton.

Assorted Bags

Another product introduced by the nuns are different types of bags including nun/monk bags, shopping bags and silk applique bags.

Buddhist nun making tofu at nunnery

Making tofu at Dolma Ling Nunnery. Photo courtesy of Brian Harris

Making Tofu

Dolma Ling nuns make tofu once a week to supply the nunnery kitchen for meals since the nunnery follows a vegetarian diet. The nuns also sell extra tofu for special orders. We are currently looking for a bigger tofu machine so that tofu can be made and sold on a larger scale to the general public and to raise more funds for the nunnery.

Garbage Enzymes

Several years ago a Malaysian group visited the nunnery and taught the nuns how to make a garbage enzyme made from water, vegetable and fruit scraps and jaggery (brown sugar). This has been very beneficial for the nuns because it is cheap, easy to make and can be used for a wide variety of purposes. The nuns use it for cleaning the kitchen and dining room floors, cleaning the toilets, for laundry and bath water, and for skin care. The enzymes are also bottled and sold to staff and the public through the nunnery shop.

Nuns’ Café

Thanks to the generosity of one committed donor, we are now completing the kitchen for nuns’ café.

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

Buddhist Nuns Participate in Tibetan Handicrafts Exhibition

The tailoring program at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute received a big boost in July when the nuns were invited to show their handicrafts at a special two-day Art and Craft’s Exhibition organized by the Department of Education of the Central Tibetan Administration.

No other nunneries and monasteries were invited to the exhibition that took place on July 25th and 26th.

Kalon Lobsang Sangay speaking to Tibetan Buddhist nun

The Chief guest at the exhibition was Kalon Lobsang Sangay who was very impressed by the display. He spoke encouragingly to the nuns.

The exhibition was organized to introduce traditional Tibetan crafts to 25 teachers and students from 9 different schools located in Himachal Pradesh, Dehradun and Nepal. The Dolma Ling Nunnery Product Manager, Mr. Tenzin Yanga, and two nuns from the tailoring section attended the exhibition. Continue reading

Tibetan Nuns in India Close to Earning Highest Buddhist Degrees

A group of Tibetan nuns have passed the halfway mark toward a historic milestone: winning the equivalent of a Buddhist doctorate degree, until recently almost exclusively reserved only for men.

In May, 22 nuns passed through the second stage of examinations for a “Geshema” degree, the female equivalent of a Geshe degree. The examination process began in May, 2013.

Three senior nuns awaiting their turns to debate during the 2014 Geshema examinations

Three senior nuns awaiting their turns to debate during the 2014 Geshema examinations

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2015 Calendar from Tibetan Nuns Project now available

September is always an exciting time of year at the Tibetan Nuns Project office in Seattle because it’s the month when our annual wall calendar comes from the printer.

The Tibetan Nuns Project has been selling beautiful charity calendars for many years to raise funds to support over 700 Tibetan Buddhist nuns living in India at 7 nunneries.

collage of images from the 2015 Calendar Tibetan Nuns ProjectProceeds from the sale of the 2015 calendar will help provide food, shelter, health care and education to the nuns.

The 2015 calendar is filled with stunning images of Tibetan life and culture all taken by the nuns. It also includes:

  • inspirational quotes
  • the Tibetan lunar calendar
  • Tibetan Buddhist ritual dates
  • phases of the moon
  • major US and Canadian holidays

All the photos were taken by the nuns in India. Dimension 6.5″ x 7″. Price $11.00

The calendar is available for purchase through our online store or by check from our Seattle office at:

Tibetan Nuns Project
815 Seattle Boulevard South #216
Seattle, WA 98134
Phone: (206) 652-8901
info@tnp.org

Please help us sell all 2,000 calendars by purchasing them as gifts for friends, family and teachers. We would be very grateful if you could also spread the word to your networks.

These calendars give back each and every day and bring happiness to you and the nuns.

A Day in the Life of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns

Here’s your ticket to India…

With these two videos you can sit back, relax and explore the sights and sounds of life at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, located near Dharamsala in northern India.

The photos of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in the video and the soundscape below are courtesy of Brian Harris. We hope you enjoy this bit of armchair travelling.

Wild Plum-headed parakeets come to Dolma Ling Nunnery for food during the cold months

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Postcard from Dharamsala – Geshema exams, Sagadawa and more

logo of Postcard from Dharamsala

Here’s the latest news from Dharamsala:

Tibetan Buddhist nuns sitting round 2 of Geshema examsThe second round of the Geshema Examinations was held at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute from May 1-16, 2014. 23 nuns sat the 2nd year exam, while 6 sat the 1st year exam. The results were released on July 6, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Birthday. We are very happy to announce that most of the nuns did very well in their exams; only three nuns failed, one from the 2nd year group and two from 1st year group.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns praying Sagadawa 2014Sagadawa, which is considered a holy month, fell this year from June 13 – July 12. Three events in the life of Lord Buddha took place within this holy month, his birth, enlightenment, and demise. If we practice good deeds during this time period, we consider we will earn more merit than usual, so everybody puts their effort into doing some wholesome activities. In the nunneries, they do special Nyungne (fasting retreat) and in some they read the full 108 volumes of the Kangyur (teachings of Lord Buddha) over a number of days. Most observe the specific practice for ordained people of not eating dinner during that month. Continue reading

Compassionate Eye: TNP interviews photographer Olivier Adam

Olivier Adam is a French photographer who has been documenting the rich and luminous world of Buddhist nuns since 2008. His photographs focus on the spiritual path and the strength of Tibetan nuns.

Olivier Adam in Kathmandu
On August 14 2014, a moving exhibition of photographs by Olivier Adam will open at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg, Germany.

The opening of the exhibition will coincide His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Hamburg and is being held in conjunction with a series of events about Tibetan culture and Buddhism, including a second exhibition at the museum about Tibetan nomads.

Olivier Adam has been an active supporter of the Tibetan Nuns Project since 2008. He is working tirelessly to spread the word about the Tibetan Nuns Project and donates a portion of proceeds from sales of his high-quality prints to help the nuns.

Here’s an interview with Olivier Adam about his work and why he finds the nuns so inspiring.

Q: When and how did you first start photographing Tibetan Buddhist nuns?
A: I started photographing Tibetan Buddhist nuns in February 2008 at various nunneries in and around Dharamsala, India – at the old Shugsep Nunnery, at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute and at Geden Choeling Nunnery – after a meeting with Rinchen Khando Choegyal, Director of the Tibetan Nuns Project. She gave me the authorization to start this work with the Tibetan nuns. It was just a few days before the dramatic events in Lhasa in 2008, when demonstrations erupted during the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics and Lhasa was completely locked down for a time.

Q: What is it about the nuns that inspires you?
A: I have always worked on feminine photography projects, for instance, the Royal Ballet of Cambodia or the women who were removing landmines in Cambodia. At the beginning I was inspired (and I am still inspired) by the devotion of these nuns. I’m very impressed at how hard they study, from 5 am until sometimes to 10 pm. They have a mix of laughter and serious discipline. I was very interested in documenting the daily life of these nuns, such as their morning prayers, their time in the classroom and all the moments the nuns are sharing together. I am trying to produce inspiring pictures.

Then journey after journey, I started to collect the stories of these nuns, especially those nuns who had escaped Tibet. These are such difficult stories, full of emotion, and some of the nuns wept when referring to these moments. Some of them had spent years in prison because they took part in peaceful demonstrations in Tibet. At the same time, I never felt in their words, in their eyes, in their acts, any loss of compassion, even towards the people who had tortured them.

Day after day I discovered that the nuns and, more Tibetan women in general, are deeply involved in resistance in Tibet and in exile, as I saw them demonstrating on March 10th, the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising in 1959.

Q: You’ve worked very hard to spread the word about the Tibetan Nuns Project. What do you want people to know about our work?
A: Education. Education is the main goal for me. The Tibetan Nuns Project is doing a wonderful job in educating nuns, not only in Buddhist studies but in all aspects of education that a woman will need in this life. I can recognize in this the influence of Rinchen Khando la who was President of Tibetan Women’s Association and also the first woman to become a minister in the Tibetan government in exile.

The work is so broad, from taking care of elderly nuns who escaped Tibet and giving them assistance to, at the same time, building the future of young nuns. Tsewang Zangmo, for example, a young novice at Shugsep Nunnery, arrived few years ago from the border between Nepal and Tibet with eleven other nuns. As a school without tuition fees, the nunnery welcomes young girls from very poor families or who are orphans and provides them with a good education. The Tibetan Nuns Project is trying at the same time to help some remote nunneries to survive, such as Dorje Dzong Nunnery in Zanskar.

I’m also so happy that now nuns have the opportunity to take the Geshema exams – exams equivalent to a PhD in Tibetan Buddhism that, until recently, were only open to monks.

Q: You travel widely to remote locations? Can you tell us about one of your favorite adventures?
A: Discovering Zanskar, one of the highest-altitude inhabited valleys in the Himalayas and the nunneries there two years ago was such an adventure. The nunneries in Zanskar are desperately short of schools and teachers. This is why the Tibetan Nuns Project is helping Dorje Dzong with their education projects. In addition to taking pictures, we helped as much as we could to start building some new houses and we helped the nuns to wash barley to prepare tsampa (roasted barley flour) for the coming winter. All this happened at an altitude of 4000 meters, with two nuns who are 80 years old and full of energy. It was such an adventure. Next month I will be back there at Dorje Dzong to give them some prints and to continue my report there.

Q: This August 14 your exhibition “Tibetan Nuns: Resistance and Compassion” is opening in Hamburg. Tell us about it.
A: It’s such a precious occasion to show this work about Tibetan nuns to a very large public and for a long time because the exhibition will run from August 14th to the end of November at least and maybe even to February.

This exhibition has already been shown in different places in France, but never in such an institution where around 100,000 visitors are expected to see it.

Dominique Butet who is working with me, collecting interviews of the nuns and writing regular articles about these nuns, and Heide Koch who initiated this exhibition in Hamburg and organized it with me, both put real effort into writing the most meaningful texts to accompany the pictures to create an “educational” exhibition.

We are also expecting a visit to the museum by His Holiness Dalai Lama who will be in Hamburg for teachings in August. His Holiness is a strong supporter of the nuns’ education and for women in general.

The opening event will also include a lecture on “Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Exile: Heading to a New Self-Confidence” by Dr. Rotraut Jampa Wurst and also the movie In the Shadow of the Buddha about nuns’ daily life.

It’s also an occasion to sell some prints and postcards in the museum’s shop and 25% of the benefits will go directly to the Tibetan Nuns Project.

Q: Do you have any favorite photos of the nuns?
A: Difficult question… because each picture is a meeting.

Tibetan Buddhist nun from Shugsep Nunnery by Olivier Adam

I will first choose one inspiring picture of a ritual I did at Shugsep Nunnery. The 25th day of each lunar month is dedicated to the ritual of Dakini which celebrates the female wisdom. They are considered emanations of the Buddhas as well as guardians of secret knowledge. I hope this picture may inspire all practicioners.

Gyaltsen Drölkar Tibetan nun at March 10th Brussels by Olivier Adam

Then, I would definitely choose this picture of Gyaltsen Drölkar that I took when she was demonstrating in Belgium on March 10th.

When Gyaltsen Drölkar was only 19 years old and already a nun she was arrested in Lhasa, during a non-violent demonstration. In 1993, she and 13 other imprisoned nuns secretly recorded cassettes with songs praising the beauty of the Land of Snow and expressing their yearning for freedom. This cost her another eight years of ill treatment and imprisonment. In 2002 Gyaltsen Drölkar was finally freed but she suffers from the severe physical consequences of her 12 years in prison. She now lives in Belgium where she was granted political refugee status.

Mudra transmission from an elderly Buddhist nun to a novice Olivier Adam

Finally, I love this picture of a senior nun taking care of her community by teaching a young one the mudra (gesture) used in a mandala offering, taken during the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Zanskar.

Q: Any further thoughts?
A: I would like to share these few words from His Holiness Dalai Lama who is here teaching in Ladakh, from where I’m answering these questions:

“We must insist on education for all. Women must be much more involved in our societies and take part in the building of a more peaceful, less violent world in which people help one another.” Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Biography of Olivier Adam

Olivier Adam was born in Laval, France in 1969. He is a physicist, and graduated from the “ Ecole Normale Supérieure” in Paris, but through the years he has turned to being a photographer. He is now a freelance photographer and a teacher at the photography school Auguste Renoir in Paris. In 2001, his work on the Khmer dance and silk was exhibited at the Palais de l’Unesco in Paris. For several years now he has been studying the Tibetan culture and Buddhism, specially attending the Kalachakra classes, taught by His Holiness the Dalai Lama all over the world.

Olivier belongs to a humanist tradition and works on personal subjects, mixing both Man and the Sacred. Rituals, women and their universe hold an important place in his photos. He has worked together with Sofia Stril-Rever, Matthieu Ricard and Manuel Bauer on a book called Kalachakra : un mandala pour la paix, published in April 2008 by Editions de la Martinière and also the book Dalai Lama- Appel au monde published in May 2011 by Le Seuil.

Since 2008, Olivier has been closely interested in the lives of the Tibetan nuns in exile. He started this work in five nunneries near Dharamsala and he has continued to expand this work by meeting nuns who were former political prisoners and who have been granted shelter in the West. Dakinis, this series on the Buddhist female universe, supplemented by sounds and interviews collected by Dominique Butet, Oliviers’s wife, now extends to nuns from across the Himalayas.

Olivier Adam is a regular photographer for the French magazine Regard Bouddiste and is one of the founders of Dharma Eye, a collective of practicing Buddhist photographers and visual artists who use their art in support of beneficial Dharma causes.

You can see more of Olivier Adams work and purchase his prints at these two websites:
www.olivieradam.fr
www.dharmaeye.com