In 2024, the Tibetan Nuns Project asked for help to purchase hundreds of English, math, science, and general knowledge textbooks. Thank you to everyone who helped buy textbooks for seven Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in northern India!
Here is a report with photos and news from each nunnery. All books came from Collins India.
Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute
Dolma Ling Nunnery, the largest nunnery supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project, is home to about 270 nuns. The nuns and their teachers received these 274 new textbooks in May 2024 thanks to kind donors. The teachers needed books for higher-level grades plus grammar and composition books.
In May, the Dolma Ling nuns received 274 new textbooks thanks to your generosity.
By educating and empowering these dedicated women, you are helping create a new generation of teachers and leaders that we desperately need in these troubled, chaotic times.
Sakya College for Nuns
Home to about 50 nuns, Sakya College of Nuns near Dehradun, is a place where Sakya nuns can pursue Buddhist studies for up to 15 years, earning the highest degrees in the Sakya tradition. Here are some photos taken by the nuns.
Nuns at Sakya College for Nuns with their new textbooks
Geden Choeling Nunnery
At Geden Choeling, the oldest nunnery in Dharamsala, the 200 nuns and their teachers are excited to have good sets of books. Geden Choeling’s abbot wants the nuns to learn math, but until now the nunnery didn’t have any math textbooks. Generous donors enabled the nunnery to order these 362 textbooks. Like all Tibetans, the nuns have a deep respect for books and the printed word. As soon as the books arrived, the nuns made plastic covers to protect them and make them last longer.
Nuns at Geden Choeling nunnery carefully protect their new textbooks. Tibetans have a deep respect for books. Photo by the Dolma Ling Media Nuns.
Shugsep Nunnery and Institute
Eight boxes containing 369 textbooks were delivered in May to Shugsep Nunnery and Institute, home to about 100 nuns. The Shugsep nuns needed math, science, and English grammar and composition books. The English teacher asked for help to improve the nunnery’s collection of English textbooks so the students could complete coursework up to Grade 8. The nunnery’s last big purchase of books was many years ago and those books were so well-loved and used that they were falling apart.
The Tibetan Buddhist nuns at Shugsep Nunnery are thrilled with their new books. Thank you!
Sherab Choeling Nunnery
In mid-June, we received these wonderful photos from the nuns at Sherab Choeling Nunnery as they got their six big boxes of textbooks.
Six big boxes of textbooks arrived! Women and girls from remote Himalayan areas like Spiti are traditionally given far less education than men and boys. The Tibetan Nuns Project helps support the nunnery’s 17-year study program.
Sherab Choeling Nunnery in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh was founded in 1995 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.
Dorjee Zong Nunnery
Because Dorjee Zong is so remote it was the last nunnery to receive the textbooks. This ancient nunnery is located in Zanskar in the Indian Himalayas. The books were hand-delivered by a team from the Tibetan Nuns Project who travelled from Dharamsala to see the nuns and inspect the expansion project there.
New books for Dorjee Zong. The nunnery educates both lay girls and nuns. It gives them a chance for education that they would not otherwise have.
The Tibetan Nuns Project has been supporting Dorjee Zong since 2009, mainly through our sponsorship program, teachers’ salaries, and specific projects the major expansion project started in 2019 to improve the facilities at the nunnery. Girls in the Himalayas are generally given far less education than boys and are often removed from school as early as Grade 4 if they are sent at all.
Tilokpur Nunnery
The textbook order for Tilokpur Nunnery included a series of books called Cherry Blossoms for the new class of 15 young nuns who joined the nunnery this spring. Tilokpur nunnery has one English teacher who teaches all eight classes so she is pretty busy but most appreciative of the books.
Tibetan Buddhist nuns studying this year at Tilokpur Nunnery. A single book can transform hundreds of lives over the years and we are very grateful to the donors who funded the textbooks.
Tilokpur Nunnery, also known as Karma Drubgyu Thargay Ling, is the oldest Kagyu nunnery outside of Tibet. It provides housing and education to about 120 nuns.
The mission of the Tibetan Nuns Project is to educate and empower nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as teachers and leaders; and to establish, strengthen, and support educational institutions to preserve the Tibetan religion and culture.
Here’s a final collage showing nuns at Dolma Ling using the new books. Thank you again for your support!
Photos from May 2024 taken by Robin Groth showing some of the new textbooks in use at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute.
See our Current Needs page for projects we are working on now.