Buddhist nuns of Shugsep Nunnery and Institute in Dharamsala, in India’s far north, welcomed the launch in March of a new a Research Training Center. The new facility will enable senior nuns to become qualified researchers and to serve as role models for younger nuns.

“Thanks to the generosity of five donors, the nuns were able to equip the room and launch the program at the start of the new academic year in March 2026,” said the Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP), a US-registered charity based in Seattle and in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh. “The research center will strengthen the academic and research foundations of the nunnery and enable the nuns to integrate their traditional Buddhist studies with modern research practices.”

The Research Center semester commenced with three senior nuns, who will undergo a rigorous one-year training program under the guidance of a certified professor and researcher, studying best practices and beginning their own research projects. 

The program means the nuns will themselves be qualified to train future generations of nuns, bridging the continuity of advanced learning at Shugsep. The three loponmas will also attend workshops during visits by Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk of the University of Hamburg, who has established similar research programs at Namdroling Monastery, the Dzongsar Institute, the Gangtok Institute, and other Nyingma monasteries.

“The goal is sustainability,” the TNP emphasized. “The trained loponmas will assume the role of teachers, thereby continuing the program for future loponma trainees to be self-reliant.”

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 Shugsep nuns story is one of perseverance, dedication, and hope,” the TNP related. “Many Shugsep nuns escaped from Tibet with nothing, not knowing how to read and write, traumatized in the prisons, beaten by the prison guards, and with many health problems.”

Thanks to the generosity of donors, the nuns are now able to equip the center with essentials such as computers, a projector, printer, and bookshelves, recruit certified academics to conduct the one-year training program, and facilitate the loponmas’ participation in external workshops at other established research centers in Himachal Pradesh, Gangtok, southern India, and Nepal.

“Currently, there are 60 Shugsep nuns who have graduated with their loponma degree, the highest academic degree in their philosophic tradition, roughly equivalent to a master’s degree,” the TNBP explained. “In February 2026, 19 senior nuns were enthroned as khenmos at Shugsep’s historic khenmo enthronement ceremony.* A khenmo is the highest scholarly and teaching title for nuns in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is equivalent to the Khenpo title given to monks.”

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.

* Shugsep Nunnery in India to Hold its First-ever Khenmo Enthronement Ceremony for 19 Buddhist Nuns (BDG)

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Tibetan Nuns Project
Shugsep (Tibetan Nuns Project)
Sponsor a Nun (Tibetan Nuns Project)

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