nuns' cafe Archives - Tibetan Nuns Project

We have good news from Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in northern India.

Thanks to the generosity and support of donors, in particular one very special donor from Santa Monica, California, the Tibetan Nuns Project and the nunnery have been able to complete the construction and furnishing of a small café to be operated as an income-generating enterprise by the nunnery.

Inside the new nuns’ cafe at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute

The nuns are delighted. This café fulfills a long-time wish of the nuns.

In April 2015 the nuns opened the new café and is fully operated by the nuns. The surrounding area will be carefully landscaped to enable people to sit out in the sunshine.

Entrance to the new cafe

Of all the various income-generating programs introduced at Dolma Ling Nunnery, the nuns most enjoy cooking and preparing food. Over many years, the nuns frequently requested help to establish a small café or restaurant. In the past, they had run a successful little restaurant out of their storeroom, but it was an inadequate space without proper hygienic facilities and was therefore not viable in the long term. That room was then turned into a thriving little shop selling goods made by the nuns and small, essential items for the nuns and people in the surrounding community.

In late 2013, the Tibetan Nuns Project put out a call for support for the café kitchen and equipment and in 2014, Julia from Santa Monica came forward and expressed her deep wish to help the nuns in this way.

The nuns want to have a little café for many reasons. One of them is that local children and visitors were buying packaged chips and other snacks from the nuns’ shop. These snacks were not good for their health or for the environment because the packaging created a great deal of non-biodegradable waste. The nuns were keen to greatly reduce the use of packaged snacks and to replace them with wholesome food cooked with care by the nuns themselves.

Being able to serve fresh, nutritious food and avoid packaging and garbage was an important wish of the nuns.

Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute is a non-sectarian Tibetan Buddhist nunnery that was inaugurated in 2005 and is now home to over 230 nuns. The nunnery has various income-generating projects, such as the new café, the annual Tibetan Nuns Project calendar, the making and sale of tofu, and the sale of products made by the nuns through both their own little shop and the Tibetan Nuns Project online store.

Customers dining at the new cafe run by the nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery.

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.

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.

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

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 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 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.

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

Tag Archives: nuns’ cafe

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