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Buddhist Nuns Learning Kung-Fu For Self-Defense At Kathmandu Monastery
By KTM Metro Reporter
October 7, 2011: Three hundred nuns are learning kung-fu from the masters of Nepal’s Drukpa monastery at the Druk Gawa Khilwa Buddhist nunnery near Kathmandu according to the news posted on the Blog.beliefnet.com.
Breaking the age-old tradition of only boys getting the training of kung fu, the teachers at the Druk Gawa Khilwa Buddhist nunnery have started off training nuns on kung-fu for self-defense.
“As a young boy growing up in India and Tibet I observed the pitiful condition in which nuns lived,” says His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual head of the Drukpas. “They were considered second-class while all the privileges went to monks. I wanted to change this.”
Traditionally, nuns have performed only household chores in Buddhist monasteries. Gyalwang has overturned that practice introducing the training of nuns on kung fu three years ago shortly after visiting Vietnam where he watched the female martial arts practitioners.
Kung fu is mainly for self-defense but it also helps in meditation. “We love kung fu,” said Karuna: a nun. “Now we know we can defend ourselves. We also have the fitness for long spells of meditation.”
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a former librarian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, says she will introduce kung fu at the nunnery she has set up in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
“It’s excellent exercise, good for discipline, concentration and self-confidence,” says Palmo. “Also, when any young men in the area know nuns are kung fu experts, they stay away.”
Nuns coming from places as far as Assam in India, Tibet and Kashmir to Kathmandu not only to learn kung-fu from the masters of Nepal’s Drukpa monastery but also to be kung fu instructors to teach the skills to others .
