The Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP), a US-registered charity based in Seattle and in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India, has announced encouraging progress in its project to provide a meditation retreat center for the senior nuns of Shugsep Nunnery near Dharamsala.*
“Work is progressing on the Shugsep Retreat Center, but funds are still needed,” the TNP reported. “Retreat is an essential element of Buddhist practice, but without a dedicated space at the nunnery, the nuns are forced to travel to Nepal or the caves at Tso Pemo to go on retreat.”
The TNP’s retreat center update follows the successful completion late last year of a project to provide a circumambulatory kora pathway for the Shugsep nuns for devotional walking and meditation.**
“The retreat center is a bigger project. To become fully qualified teachers, the senior nuns at Shugsep need a place where they can go on retreat and consolidate their learning,” the TNP said in an announcement shared with BDG. “They would like to be able to practice retreat together within Shugsep Nunnery, where they will have access to the effective guidance of a proper teacher as well as good basic amenities.”
Affiliated with the Nyingma tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism, Shugsep Nunnery and Institute traces its Buddhist heritage and practices directly to Tibet and some of Tibet’s most influential female Vajrayana practitioners. In the 20th century, the original Shugsep Nunnery was home to the celebrated female master Shugsep Jetsun Rinpoche (1852–1953), one of the most illustrious female practitioners in Tibetan history and a recognized incarnation of the revered tantric yogini Machig Labdron (1055–1149).
Although the original Shugsep Nunnery in Tibet was destroyed in 1959 and the resident nuns forced to leave, the nunnery was re-established in India and officially inaugurated in December 2010. Along with Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Shugsep Nunnery and Institute was built and is completely supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project. Shugsep is now home to about 100 nuns, who have the opportunity to participate in a nine-year academic program of Buddhist philosophy, debate, Tibetan language and English.
The TNP also expressed gratitude on behalf of Shugsep Nunnery for the provision by donors of 92 sets of winter robes, which will help the nuns withstand the cold months of winter, adding that the presentation of materials for robes was a powerful act of devotion and respect.
“None of the nunneries are heated,” the TNP noted. “Shugsep, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, gets very cold in winter. The average temperature in January ranges from 10°C [down] to 0°C. The new robes will be very helpful, especially during prayers, because the nuns are not allowed to wear coats or sweaters in the prayer hall as per monastic rules.”
The Tibetan Nuns Project provides education and humanitarian aid to refugee nuns from Tibet and Himalayan regions of India. Established under the auspices of the Tibetan Women’s Association and the Department of Religion and Culture of the Central Tibetan Administration, the TNP supports hundreds of nuns from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages and seven nunneries. Many of the nuns are refugees from Tibet, but the organization also reaches out to the Himalayan border areas of India, where women and girls have little access to formal education and religious training.
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** Tibetan Nuns Project Announces Completion of Kora for Buddhist Nuns of Shugsep Nunnery in Dharamsala (BDG)
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Tibetan Nuns Project
Shugsep (Tibetan Nuns Project)
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