KATHMANDU: About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial arts skills in front of hundreds of people celebrating the reopening of the nunnery long awaited in Nepal.
Nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery put on a show of strength to mark the monastery’s reopening five years after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors to the public.
The group of kung fu nuns, aged 17 to 30, are members of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa lineage, giving the nuns equal status to monks and the only nuns in the Buddhist monastic system patriarchal teacher.
Typically, nuns have to cook, clean, and are not allowed to practice any form of martial arts. But His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, a monk ranked only slightly below the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, decided to train women in kung fu to improve their health and well-being. .
He opened the nunnery in 2009 and now has 300 members ranging in age from 6 to 54.
“We practice kung fu to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy, and our goal is to promote empowerment,” said Jigme Jangchub Chosdon, 23, a nun originally from Ladakh in India. for women and gender equality”.
Nuns from Bhutan, India and Nepal and all are trained in kung fu, a Chinese martial art for self-defense and strength.
Jigme Yangchen Gamo, 24, a nun from Ramechhap, Nepal, said: “With confidence from kung fu, I really want to help the community, young girls build their own strength.”
The nunnery’s website says that the combination of gender equality, physical strength and respect for all living things represents the order’s return to its “true spiritual roots.”
In the past, nuns have completed long hiking and cycling expeditions in the Himalayas to raise money for disaster relief and promote environmentally friendly lifestyles.
Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 30, from India, said her main goal is to achieve enlightenment like Buddha, the founder of Buddhism 2,600 years ago.
“But now, since I am a normal person… I think I will focus more on helping others,” she said. “Helping others is our religion.”