About a dozen nuns on Monday performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering wellwishers at the long-awaited reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.
The nuns of the hill-top Druk Amitabha Monastery put on the show of strength to mark the institution’s reopening five years after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions closed its doors to the public.
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.
Photo: Reuters
Usually, nuns are expected to cook and clean, and are not allowed to practice any form of martial art, but Gyalwang Drukpa, a monk who ranks only slightly below the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, trained women in kung fu to improve their health and spiritual well-being.
He opened the nunnery in 2009 and it now has 300 members aged from 6 to 54.
“We do kung fu to keep ourselves mentally and physically fit, and our aim is to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality,” said Jigme Jangchub Chosdon, 23, a nun who is originally from Ladakh in India.
Photo: Reuters
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 from kung fu, I really want to help the community, young girls to build their own strength,” said 24-year-old Jigme Yangchen Gamo, a nun from Ramechhap in Nepal.
The nunnery’s Web site says that the combination of gender equality, physical strength and respect for all living things represents the order’s return to its “true spiritual roots.”
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.
Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 30, from India, said her main goal was to achieve enlightenment like Lord Buddha, who founded Buddhism 2,600 years ago.
“For now as I am a normal person... I think I will be focusing more on helping others,” she said. “Helping others is our religion.”
THE TRAGEDY OF PUNCH: Footage of the seven-month-old Japanese macaque has gone viral online after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week. Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born in July last year at Ichikawa City Zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother. Without maternal guidance to help him integrate, Punch has turned to the toy for comfort. He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The bomb scare was among several e-mails threatening Albanese sent to a representative of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance troupe banned in China that is due to perform in Australia this month, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. The e-mail
TENSIONS: The march went ahead without clashes, but arrests were still possible as police investigate suspects behind Nazi salutes, racist slurs and homophobic insults Thousands of people on Saturday marched in southeastern France under heavy security in tribute to a far-right activist whose killing, blamed on the hard left, has put the country on edge. The crowd — many wearing black and some covering their lower faces with masks — marched through the city of Lyon carrying flowers and placards bearing pictures of Quentin Deranque and the words: “justice for Quentin” and “the extreme left kills.” The 23-year-old died from head injuries following clashes between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a demonstration against a politician from the left-wing France Unbowed
‘OCCUPATION’: Hong Kong said it had lodged ‘stern protests’ with Panama’s consulate, and would ‘staunchly support’ the rights and interests of Hong Kong companies Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Monday ordered the temporary occupation of two ports run by a unit of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd following the Supreme Court’s ruling against the firm’s concession, escalating a dispute that has become a proxy battle between the US and China in Latin America. Mulino said in a speech that the administration and operation of the two ports on the strategic Panama Canal is to revert to the country’s National Maritime Authority to ensure their uninterrupted, safe and efficient operation. The occupation covers movable equipment at the ports and does not mean a definitive loss of
RSS