The Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP), a US-registered charity based in Seattle and in Himachal Pradesh, India, has announced the successful completion of a project at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute of Buddhist Dialectics to fund, build, and furnish accommodation for senior Buddhist nuns undertaking advanced tantric studies. 

“In 2019, the Tibetan Nuns Project started fundraising for a significant initiative: housing for geshemas,” the TNP related in an announcement shared with BDG. “We sought . . . help to build 16 rooms at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute for geshema-degree graduates. These rooms allow these senior nuns to live and study while they attend a year-long tantric studies program at Gyuto Tantric Monastery.

“We are happy to report that the rooms are now built, furnished, and occupied!”

Inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2005, Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute of Buddhist Dialectics is located in Kangra Valley near Dharamsala in northern India. This non-sectarian nunnery was the first institute dedicated to higher Buddhist education for Tibetan Buddhist nuns from all traditions, and is fully funded by the TNP.

Some 270 nuns are fully engaged in study, practice, and nunnery work at Dolma Ling, as well as organizing self-sufficiency projects, such as tofu-making and producing handicrafts. In 2013, 10 of the Dolma Ling nuns made history when they took part in the first-year geshema examinations.*

Thirteen geshemas entered the tantric studies program at Gyuto Tantric Monastery, which lies about three kilometers from Dolma Ling, in spring this year: five nuns from Kopan Nunnery in Nepal; four from Jangchup Choeling Nunnery in southern India; three from Geden Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala; and one from Dolma Ling.

The geshema degree is the highest academic degree in Gelugpa tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism and was only recently made available to Buddhist nuns.** Like the geshe degree for male monastics, it is roughly equivalent to a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist studies. 

“The geshema degree enables Tibetan Buddhist nuns to become teachers, leaders, and role models,” the TNP noted. “It makes these dedicated women eligible to assume various leadership roles in their monastic and lay communities reserved for degree holders and previously not open to women.”**

The rigorous exams take four years to complete, with one set held each year. To date, 54 Buddhist nuns have earned this degree. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, geshema examinations were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and resumed in 2022.

“The tantric program for geshemas program began in 2017 under the guidance and support of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Nuns Project. The first group of 23 geshemas graduated from the program in 2019. The program is thriving,” the TNP explained. “Although there have been accomplished female practitioners in Tibet’s history, until 2017, women did not have the opportunity to study tantric Buddhism formally. The nuns travel from Dolma Ling to Gyuto Tantric Monastery for classes.”

Founded in 1474 by , Jetsun Kunga Dhondup, the main disciple of the First Dalai Lama, Gyuto Monastery is one of Tibet’s most famous monasteries, specializing in the study of tantric meditation, tantric ritual arts, and Buddhist philosophy. The Gyuto monastics study lineages of practice that have been passed down through generations of monks for more than 500 years. Following the invasion of Tibet in 1959, the monastery was relocated to India. The monastery was recently relocated again, from Arunachal Pradesh to a valley near Dharamsala to accommodate growth in the monastic population to more than 500 monks.

“The tantric Buddhism program provides geshemas with training in tantric theory, rituals, and mind-training techniques used by those engaged in advanced meditation,” the TNP noted. “This level of training is essential to enable the geshemas to be fully qualified for advanced leadership roles, such as the head of a nunnery.”

The newly completed accommodation for the students at Dolma Ling comprises 16 rooms and related facilities on the third floor of the Yangchen Lophel Study Center at the nunnery. Before the new rooms were built, Dolma Ling was forced to restrict the number of new nuns who could to stay during their course because of a lack of accommodation space.

“We would like to thank everyone who supported the housing for geshemas project and the tantric studies program.” the TNP emphasized. “The tantric studies program is now funded through our Geshema Endowment, which also supports the annual geshema exams and geshema graduation. We are extremely grateful to the donors to the Geshema Endowment, including the Pema Chodron Foundation, the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Frederick Family Foundation, and the Donaldson Charitable Trust. We hope to put more of our core programs on a solid footing through our Long-Term Stability Fund.”

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. Sponsor a nun.

* Dalai Lama Awards Historic Geshema Degrees to 20 Nuns and Twenty Tibetan Nuns Make History by Passing Geshema Degree (BDG) and Tibetan Nuns Project Announces New Record for Buddhist Nuns Taking Geshema Examinations this Year (BDG)

** Tibetan Nuns Project Announces Results of the 2024 Geshema Exams for Buddhist Nuns (BDG)

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Tibetan Nuns Project
Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute (Tibetan Nuns Project)

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