About a dozen nuns performed hand strikes and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial skills to hundreds of excited supporters at the long-awaited reopening of their convent in Nepal.
Nuns at the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery performed the show of strength to mark the reopening of the institution five years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced its doors to close to the public.
The group of kung fu nuns, aged between 17 and 30, are members of the thousand-year-old Drukpa lineage, which grants nuns equal status to monks and is the only female order in the patriarchal Buddhist monastic system.
Typically, nuns are expected to cook and clean and are not allowed to practice any form of martial art. But Gyalwang Drukpa, one of the highest representatives in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, decided to train women in kung fu to improve their health and spiritual well-being.
He opened the convent in 2009 and now has 300 members aged between six and 54.
“We practice kung fu to keep ourselves mentally and physically fit, and our goal is to promote female empowerment and gender equality,” said Jigme Jangchub Chosdon, 23, a nun originally from Ladakh, India.
The nuns come from Bhutan, India and Nepal and are all trained in kung fu, the Chinese martial art for self-defense and strength.
“With the confidence of kung fu, I really want to help the community, young girls to build their own strength,” said Jigme Yangchen Gamo, 24, a nun from Ramechhap, Nepal.
The convent’s website says the combination of gender equality, physical strength and respect for all living beings represents the order’s return to its “true spiritual roots.”
In the past, nuns have completed long walking and cycling expeditions in the Himalayas to raise money for disaster relief as well as to promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 30, from India, said his main goal was to achieve enlightenment like Buddha, who founded Buddhism 2,600 years ago.
“But for now, since I’m a normal person… I think I’ll focus more on helping others,” she said. “Helping others is our religion.”
