Thanks to many generous donors, this project has been fully funded and completed. The nuns are delighted and extremely grateful to the donors for making it possible for them to restore their temple. Here is an updated report with a video and photos.
Shugsep Temple Floor Project
The temple is the heart of Shugsep Nunnery and Institute, a Nyingma nunnery in India that is home to about 90 nuns. In 2017, a massive termite infestation destroyed the wooden floor of the temple and its support structure. The floor needed to be entirely replaced.
This was a massive job and we are extremely grateful to all the donors who generously gave to the $35,000 campaign to restore the temple for the nuns.
Here’s a video to say thank you and to show you the finished floor.
Initially, the nuns had hoped that they could contain the damage to part of the floor. A 20-square-foot area of the floor was taken up in 2017, the wooden supports removed and replaced, and the flooring put back.
However, on further inspection, it became clear that the infestation had spread and that whole floor needed to be taken up, the underfloor replaced, and the new wood treated with insecticide before re-installing.
Here are photos of the repair work.
Three photos showing the new support structure for the Shugsep temple floor after the old floor and its base was destroyed by termites.
The huge job of repairing the temple floor would not have been possible without the generous support of Tibetan Nuns Project donors.
We hope that in the late spring or early summer of 2019 that the nuns can be back practicing in the temple.
Outside the main temple at Shugsep Nunnery. Shugsep Nunnery was re-established in India by the Tibetan Nuns Project. The original Shugsep Nunnery in Tibet was completely destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.
Tiles at the altar area of the nunnery. Shrouded behind the blue plastic are precious items.
Finished! The nuns are delighted and extremely grateful to the donors for making it possible for them to restore their temple.
About Shugsep Nunnery
Shugsep is a Nyingma nunnery which, in the previous century, was the home of one of the most illustrious female practitioners, Shugsep Jetsunma. After the Cultural Revolution in 1959, the Chinese authorities forced the nuns to leave Shugsep and it was completely destroyed. Although the nunnery was rebuilt in the 1980s by the nuns themselves, they faced frequent harassment.
In order to preserve their tradition, many of the nuns escaped from Tibet and established themselves in temporary accommodation in Dharamsala. The new Shugsep Nunnery was constructed by the Tibetan Nuns Project in Sudher village below the main town of Dharamsala and was graciously inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on December 7th, 2010.
The majority of the 85 nuns now studying there come from the original Shugsep Nunnery in Tibet. Here they have the opportunity to participate in a 9-year academic program of Buddhist philosophy, debate, Tibetan language, and English.
We always post our Current Needs here: https://tnp.org/current-needs/.
To help other urgent projects you can:
- Make a gift online – see below.
- Call our office in Seattle, US at 1-206-652-8901
- Mail a check to:
The Tibetan Nuns Project
815 Seattle Boulevard South #216
Seattle, WA 98134 USA