Tag Archives: Wool-Aid

Creative Ways to Help Tibetan Buddhist Nuns

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In this blog, we want to showcase some of the creative ways our supporters are helping Tibetan Buddhist nuns in India.

Since we are a small charity, it is hard for us to manage volunteers and events. So we appreciate our supporters doing things that they love, independent of our help, and then donating a portion of the proceeds to help the nuns.

Wool-Aid: Knitting for Nuns

Wool-Aid, knitted sweaters for Tibetan Buddhist nuns

Our deepest thanks to Terry Yokota and all the volunteer knitters with Wool-Aid for their latest shipment of sweaters, hats, and mittens for Tibetan Buddhist nuns in India.

Since 2016, a group of volunteer knitters called Wool-Aid have knit hats, sweaters, and mittens for nuns at nunneries in northern India. The knitters thoughtfully choose colors in keeping with the nuns’ robes and also cover any shipping and receiving costs.

In December, the nuns at Dolma Ling received three boxes of knitwear from Wool-Aid. At this time, the Wool-Aid volunteers are fulfilling the needs of the various nunneries we support and there is no need for other knitters to send things.

Wool-Aid sweaters, hats and mittens, knitwear for Tibetan Buddhist nuns, ways to help

The Tibetan Buddhist nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute are delighted with their new sweaters, hats, and mittens from Wool-Aid.

The Etsy Shop Daughters of Buddha

Our long-time supporter, Olivier Adam, created an Etsy site called “Daughters of Buddha” in 2014 dedicated to supporting the Tibetan Nuns Project. Olivier sells fine art prints and postcards featuring his stunning photographs and kindly donates 50% of the sales to help the nuns.

Daughters of Buddha Etsy site banner

Banner image for Olivier Adam’s Etsy site where he sells fine art prints and cards with 50% of the proceeds donated to the Tibetan Nuns Project.

Since 2008 Olivier has travelled at his own expense to document the lives of nuns in India and Nepal. He shares his images with the Tibetan Nuns Project and we also sell greeting cards with his photos here. There are three packs to choose from and they are a great value. Each pack costs US $20 and contains 10 blank cards and envelopes with beautiful photos donated by Olivier Adam and Brian Harris.

ways to help, blank greeting cards, Tibetan greeting cards, cards by Olivier Adam

Greeting cards with photos by Olivier Adam are available through the Tibetan Nuns Project online store.

Brian Harris’s Creative Legacy Campaign

You may be familiar with Brian Harris’s iconic photo of laughing nuns. Brian and his wife Paula have left gifts in their wills to the Tibetan Nuns Project and they wanted to encourage others to do the same. Brian has donated 8×10 prints of his “Laughing Nuns” to be given to anyone who confirms that they are leaving a legacy to the Tibetan Nuns Project. You can read the story behind the famous Laughing Nuns photo here.

laughing nuns by Brian Harris, legacy gift, free gift

Do What You Love and Benefit the Nuns

Once or twice a year for the past 12 years, the Tibetan Nuns Project has received a check from the Oxford University Press for royalties from the sale of a Buddhist book after the authors kindly donated their royalties to help the nuns.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns holding a thank-you sign

We are so grateful to everyone who pays it forward to help the nuns!

If you have something that you love doing, like baking bread, growing flowers, or making art, why not consider donating a portion of the proceeds to help educate and empower Tibetan Buddhist nuns?

Daily Life at Sherab Choeling Nunnery in Spiti Valley India

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In the remote Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, lies Sherab Choeling Nunnery, currently home to about 65 Tibetan Buddhist nuns. Many of the nuns are sponsored by Tibetan Nuns Project donors.

Tibetan Buddhist nun studying

Many young girls seek admission to Sherab Choeling, but due to lack of facilities and sponsors, it is not possible for all to gain entrance. The Tibetan Nuns Project helps by raising awareness, finding sponsors for the nuns, and helping them to fundraise for the further development of the institute.

We just received lots of photos showing daily life at Sherab Choeling Nunnery that we wanted to share with the sponsors of the nuns and with Tibetan Nuns Project donors worldwide.

Nuns at Sherab Choeling Nunnery

The nuns after their annual result ceremony. Many of the nuns are holding sweaters, vests, and hats knitted and donated by Wool-Aid.

The nunnery was founded in 1995 with the goal to educate Himalayan Buddhist nuns who would otherwise have no opportunity to receive any formal schooling or spiritual education. It is a non-sectarian nunnery that recognizes the beauty and value in all Buddhist traditions.

Sherab Choeling Nunnery in Spiti Himachal Pradesh

The nunnery is very secluded and lies in the village of Morang (between Manali and Tabor) at 4,000 meters altitude. The nuns have difficult living conditions. They often face long harsh winters and heavy snowfalls.

The nunnery was built in 1995 by 20 nuns and their teacher and was consecrated that year by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There is the main building, a prayer hall, a classroom, an office, a kitchen, and a storeroom.

nuns studying at Sherab Choeling Nunnery

Traditionally women and girls in this region have suffered from many social and educational disadvantages. Many have been deprived of any kind of education. Sherab Choeling Nunnery was the first religious educational project for Spiti women, providing women and girls with the opportunity to overcome these obstacles.

Typically, women who live in remote areas like Spiti and who are interested in studying or practicing their religion have very few options. The Tibetan Nuns Project was approached by the nunnery in 2006 to help them develop their institution and the nunnery was accepted into our sponsorship program.

The nuns at Sherab Choeling follow a 17-year study program. The curriculum is designed to educate the nuns in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, Tibetan language, and literature, in addition to basic education in English, Hindi, and math. The broad education is intended to provide the nuns with the necessary skills to educate future generations of nuns and the communities from which they come.

Nuns at Sherab Choeling practice Tibetan debate

The nuns practice Tibetan Buddhist debate. Training in Tibetan Buddhist debate is an essential part of monastic education in the Tibetan tradition. Until recently, Tibetan nuns did not have the opportunity to fully study and practice Tibetan Buddhist debate, a process that joins logical thinking with a deeper understanding of Buddhist philosophy.

Although the area of Lahaul-Spiti is part of India, ethnically, the people are descended from Tibetans and the majority are devout Buddhists. They have preserved an ancient Tibetan culture, speaking an old dialect of the Tibetan language, as written in Tibetan scriptures.

firewood for winter at Sherab Choeling Nunnery

During the coldest months, the nuns hold their classes, prayers, and meetings in the kitchen because it is warmer and helps to save wood.

The nuns have difficult living conditions. They often face long harsh winters and heavy snowfalls. During winter the region is cut off from neighboring villages so the nuns must stock up their daily supplies well before the onset of cold weather.

Winter at Sherab Choeling Nunnery

The frozen reservoir. Washing clothes and dishes in freezing-cold water is a challenge.

greenhouse and supplies at Sherab Choeling Nunnery 2019

With the help of volunteers, the nuns have been able to set up three greenhouses where they mostly grow spinach. Before winter, the nuns must stock up rations of food and fuel.

Summer is the most important and busy season at the nunnery. The nuns must work hard in the fields and store firewood for the winter in addition to concentrating on their studies.

taking care of the cows at Sherab Choeling Nunnery

The nuns are very positive about their future and someday want to be able to serve as teachers back in their villages.

sponsor a Tibetan Buddhist nun

A Tibetan Buddhist nun at Sherab Choeling Nunnery holding gifts from her sponsor. We’d like to thank all our sponsors of nuns at Sherab Choeling for their support. We are always looking for more sponsors for nuns at the seven nunneries we support in northern India.

We’d like to thank all our sponsors of nuns at Sherab Choeling for their support. We still need more sponsors. To sponsor a nun please visit https://tnp.org/youcanhelp/sponsor/

Here is an audio recording of the nuns reciting the Lama Chopa or Guru Puja recorded in 2015 by the French photographer, Olivier Adam.