Tibetan Nuns Project Leads Transformation at Dorjee Zong Buddhist Nunnery in Ladakh

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Tibetan Nuns Project Leads Transformation at Dorjee Zong Buddhist Nunnery in Ladakh

By Craig C Lewis
November 17, 2021

Dorjee Zong before the expansion project, which began in 2019.
Photo by Olivier Adam. Image courtesy of the Tibetan Nuns Project

The Tibetan Nuns Project, a US-registered charity based in Seattle and in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India, has shared news of its remarkable progress in the process of renewal and transformation at the 700-year-old Tibetan Buddhist nunnery of Dorjee Zong in the Zanskar region of Ladakh.

A renovation and reconstruction project begun in 2019 is now nearing completion, the charity announced, bringing a multitude of benefits to the resident nuns and staff of the monastery, with progress on amenities including a nunnery school with seven classrooms to accommodate 50 students; a new residential block; a new kitchen, dining hall, and storeroom; a prayer hall; an office building; and a new toilet and bathroom building.

“Until recently, the buildings at this 700-year-old nunnery were very basic. There was just one classroom and one main building that was used for everything,” the Tibetan Nuns Project said in an announcement shared with BDG. “Dorjee Zong is now going through an exciting transition and major construction project thanks to generous donors.”

Young girls study in the single old classroom at Dorjee Zong.
Photo by Olivier Adam. Image courtesy of the Tibetan Nuns Project

Dorjee Zong was founded in the 14th century by Master Sherab Zangpo, a senior disciple of Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (c. 1357–1419), or Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The center has a long tradition of accomplished meditating nuns, some of whom have attained high levels of realization, among them Khandroma Yeshi Lhamo, also known as Jomo Shelama.

The high-altitude monastic center is now home to about 20 nuns, the eldest of whom are in their 80s. The youngest nuns receive primary education up to Grade 5 onsite. Around nine of the nuns who have completed their Grade 5 education attend classes at the nearby government school.

Girls and women in the region have traditionally received far fewer opportunities for education than their male counterparts, and the nunnery offers them a chance for education that they would not otherwise have. The nunnery was accepted into the Tibetan Nuns Project’s sponsorship program in 2009.

This new two-story building has 10 rooms to provide accommodation for
50 students. It also contains the kitchen, dining hall, and storeroom on the
ground floor, and on the upper floor, the prayer hall and a conference hall.
Image courtesy of the Tibetan Nuns Project

“Despite the pandemic, this summer work continued on the construction of the new buildings, including the housing blocks, the kitchen, the classrooms, and so on,” the Tibetan Nuns Project stated. “In the summer of 2021, 20 workers were employed on the project. Although the construction season at this altitude is very short, there was a lot of work done including: plastering of the exterior and interior second story of the main building; carpentry work for the dining hall, kitchen, classroom, library, and prayer hall; making cupboards, chairs, tables, and little study tables for the young nuns; plumbing for the kitchen and bathrooms; and windows for the classroom, staffroom, and second story.”

Donations since 2019 have also funded the purchase of a school bus, which enables the younger nuns to make the roughly 20-kilometer round trip to the government school, where they can continue their education beyond Grade 5.

“The bus is providing a wonderful service not just for the nuns but also for young girls going to and from school,” the Tibetan Nuns Project shared. “In 2020, due to the pandemic, the Indian schools were closed for some time. Now they are open again and the nuns are going back and forth to school using the bus. Thank you to everyone who has supported the expansion project and the bus!”

The new school bus has about 20 seats that can serve the nuns and other girls
from the local community. Image courtesy of the Tibetan Nuns Project

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, it supports hundreds of nuns from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages living in nunneries and elsewhere in India. 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 had little access to education and religious training.

For more information ways to support the work of the Tibetan Nuns Project and Dorjee Zong Buddhist nunnery, click here.

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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