The Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP), a US-registered charity based in Seattle and in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India, has announced graduation results for the record cohort of 173 Buddhist nuns who underwent various levels of the geshema examination process this summer. The results include 33 newly graduated geshemas from five monasteries in India and Nepal.
“Of the 173 nuns who took exams, 156 passed. This is a 90 per cent pass rate, the TNP reported. “All 33 nuns who took their fourth and final year of exams passed. This brings the total number of geshemas to 153 since the first geshemas graduation ceremony took place 10 years ago in 2016.”*
This year saw 62 nuns take the first-year exams, with 46 passes, and 46 nuns sit for their second-year exams, with 45 passes. Thirty-two nuns took third-year exams, all of whom passed, while 33 nuns took the final fourth-year exam, and all 33 passed.
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 rigorous exams take four years to complete, with one set held each year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, geshema examinations were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and resumed in 2022.
“Their graduation ceremony was held on 17 October during the 30th annual Jang Gonchoe, a winter debate session attended by over 500 nuns from 11 nunneries in India and Nepal,” said the TNP. “Youdon Aukatsang, director of the Tibetan Nuns Project office in India, expressed hope that the ‘growing number of highly educated nuns will play an important role in preserving and promoting Tibetan Buddhism’ for future generations.”
This year’s geshema exams were hosted by Geden Choeling Nunnery, Dharamsala, from 21 July–17 August.*** The costs of the nuns’ travel, food, and the examinations were borne by the TNP.
Geden Choeling, located in McLeod Ganj, is the largest and oldest Buddhist nunnery in India. Since 1975, the center has offered a safe haven to a steady stream of refugee Tibetan nuns There are currently 175 nuns in residence, including a number of elderly nuns who are cared for by their younger colleagues. The nunnery was founded by a group of nuns who fled the destruction of Nechung Ri Nunnery in Tibet. In collaboration with nuns from elsewhere in Tibet, they established Geden Choeling, which means “home of the virtuous ones who devote their lives to the Buddhadharma.” (Tibetan Nuns Project)
“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 hence previously not open to women.”
Geshema candidates are examined on the entirety of their 17-year course of study of the five major canonical texts covering the Abhidharma (higher knowledge), Prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom), Madhyamaka (Middle Way), Pramana (logic), and the Vinaya (moral and ethical conduct). During the course of their studies, the candidates must achieve a score at least 75 per cent to be considered eligible to sit for the geshema examinations.
“On 18 October . . . around 500 Tibetan Buddhist nuns had an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the main Tibetan temple in Dharamsala and had a group photo,” the TNP said. “During the event, His Holiness bestowed the oral transmission of the Prayer to the Twenty-One Holy Women Siddhas of India and Tibet, which His Holiness composed. His Holiness blessed each of this year’s geshema graduates.”
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.
* Dalai Lama Awards Historic Geshema Degrees to 20 Nuns (BDG), 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)
** The Central Tibetan Administration reached this unanimous and historic decision on 19 May 2012 after a two-day meeting in Dharamsala attended by high lamas, representatives of nuns from six nunneries, and members of the Tibetan Nuns Project.
*** Another New Record for Buddhist Nuns Taking Geshema Examinations in Dharamsala This Year (BDG)
See more
Tibetan Nuns Project
Sponsor a Nun (Tibetan Nuns Project)
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