{"id":14908,"date":"2024-12-31T18:42:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T12:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=14908"},"modified":"2025-01-02T21:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:30:09","slug":"nepals-kung-fu-nuns-kick-off-reopening-of-nunnery-to-public-after-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/nepals-kung-fu-nuns-kick-off-reopening-of-nunnery-to-public-after-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal’s kung fu nuns kick off reopening of nunnery to public after five years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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-Gopal Sharma<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kathmandu, 31 Dec: About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering well-wishers at the long-awaited reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.<\/p>\n

The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery, put on the show of strength to mark the institution\u2019s reopening five years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors to the public.<\/p>\n

The group of kung fu nuns, aged from 17 to 30, are members of the 1,000 year-old Drukpa lineage, which gives nuns equal status as monks and is the only female order in the patriarchal Buddhist monastic system.<\/p>\n

Usually, nuns are expected to cook and clean and are not allowed to practise any form of martial art. But His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, a senior monk in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, decided to train women in kung fu to improve their health and spiritual well-being.<\/p>\n

He opened the nunnery in 2009, and it now has 300 members aged between six and 54.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do kung fu to keep ourselves mentally and physically fit, and our aim is to promote women\u2019s empowerment and gender equality,\u201d said Jigme Jangchub Chosdon, 23, a nun who is originally from Ladakh in India.<\/p>\n

The nuns come from Bhuta, India and Nepal and are all trained in kung fu, the Chinese martial art for self-defence and strength.
\n\u201cWith the confidence from kung fu, I really want to help the community, young girls to build their own strength,\u201d said 24-year-old Jigme Yangchen Gamo, a nun from Ramechhap in Nepal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\"Buddhist<\/div>
Buddhist nuns practise kung fu at a nunnery on the outskirts of Kathmandu in April 2012. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n
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The nunnery\u2019s website says that the combination of gender equality, physical strength and respect for all living things represents the order\u2019s return to its \u201ctrue spiritual roots\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the past, the nuns have completed lengthy expeditions on foot and by bike in the Himalayas to raise money for disaster relief, as well as to promote environmentally-friendly living.<\/p>\n

Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 30, from India, said her main goal was to achieve enlightenment like Lord Buddha, who founded Buddhism 2,600 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for now, as I am a normal person \u2026 I think I will be focusing more on helping others,\u201d she said. \u201cHelping others is our religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Reuters<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Gopal Sharma Kathmandu, 31 Dec: About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering well-wishers at the long-awaited reopening of their nunnery in Nepal. The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery, put on the show of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-himalayan","category-main-news","category-news","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14908"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15069,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14908\/revisions\/15069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}