“I decided to devote all my life to improve women’s education, to fully focus on female practitioners, with full modern education and with the authentic Buddhist teaching which I call the path of Enlightenment in the woman’s form.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche III
The Tsoknyi Humanitarian Foundation supports Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s aspiration that these nuns will become among the most accomplished Buddhist practitioners and Dharma teachers in the world.
WHY SUPPORT THE NUNS?
- To preserve the Tsoknyi Lineage, a very precious and rare practice lineage that provides the same monastic training to women that has been traditionally reserved for men
- To empower the nuns to become accomplished Dharma teachers
- To provide young women and girls of the high Himalayas the best modern education and a rich training opportunity in the highest Buddhist studies and practice
- To cultivate these women and girls to become educated global citizens, agents of change in their communities, and models of compassion for all!
- To provide a lifetime of living the enlightened tradition of Dharma in the female form.
Tsoknyi, Drukpa Kagyu, and Nyingma Lineages
From at least the 12th century, Tibetan nunneries assumed a key role in preserving the dharma in Tibet. Prior to 1949, there were at least 818 nunneries and approximately 28,000 nuns. In the years that followed, nunneries were destroyed and some nuns imprisoned, forced into labor camps and tortured. The
- Schools and Education
Schools and education are the foundation of TLN’s efforts to cultivate opportunities for higher training, leadership, and service among women in the Himalaya. Tsoknyi Gechak School, outside of Kathmandu, was one of Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s earliest and most important projects to support the education and early development of young women.
Tsoknyi Gechak School
Tsoknyi Gechak School is the primary and lower secondary school for the school-aged nuns at Tsoknyi Gechak Ling. Tsoknyi Gechak School combines the power of modern education and Buddhist spiritual training to cultivate students’ basic goodness and potential for compassion and wisdom. At TGS students follow the full Nepali government
Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns
Until 1949, the region of Nangchen, where the great majority of the Tsoknyi nunneries are located, was an independent kingdom in Eastern Tibet, with its own language and its own government. It is now a county in the Qinghai province of China. Nangchen is so remote that before 1949, it
Tsoknyi Gechak Ling Nunnery
Tsoknyi Gechak Ling is the only nunnery practicing the Tsoknyi tradition outside of Tibet. The ancient hilltop village of Chobhar, outside of Kathmandu, is renowned for the centuries-old temple of the Chobhar Adhinath, also known as Anandadi Lokeshvara, one of the Kathmandu Valley’s four main temples of Avalokiteshvara. Situated quite
Tsoknyi Gargon Ling Nunnery
Tsoknyi Gargon Ling is located high in the Himalayas at the sacred pilgrimage site of Muktinath, known to the Tibetans as Chumig Gyatsa, the place of a hundred springs. Both Buddhists and Hindus come to bathe in the holy water there. Sacred to the worship of Lord Vishnu, Muktinath is
Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s aspiration for these young girls and women is to eventually become teachers just like him!
