The Eastern dharmic religion of Buddhism attracted many connoisseurs across the world for its teachings on transcendental meditation to a point that Buddhism is now almost synonymous with peace and tranquillity.
Garbing a maroon robe and transcending to a spiritual tangent under the shadow of lush green trees, Buddhist monks and nuns are revered for evangelizing on harbouring peace within through meditation.
However, these Buddhist nuns sought a different form of meditation for themselves and i.e. Kung-fu. Their monastery nestled in Himachal Pradesh, Leh and Ladakh, and Delhi. They choose to preach not only about spirituality but also about self-defence to empower young girls.
“I was 8-year-old when I decided to shun the worldly affairs and indulge myself in the nunnery. However, as a woman, my heart aches for every girl who is violated and humiliated. Hence, our organization believes to empower them by giving them the training in Kung-fu,” said Deepam, who has been practising Kung-fu since past 8 years.
She believes that Kung-fu requires perseverance of meditative sorts and hence it can be seen as a branch of meditation where one focuses on the physical agility.
The Kung Fu nuns are Buddhist nuns of the Drukpa lineage, a thousand-year-old Buddhist dynasty that began in the Himalayas. Their preacher, Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual leader and founder of the Drukpa order, encouraged his nuns to train in Kung Fu to build confidence as leaders.
The nuns have now been conferred with Asia’s Game Changer Award. The award is given to honour Asians who have contributed and performed remarkably in their respective fields. The nuns will receive the award on Wednesday, October 23.
Indian leaders and activists like Indra Nooyi, Mukesh Ambani, and Dev Patel, are some of the Indians who received the award previously.
Buddhist tradition barred nuns from physical exercise for centuries. But the Kung Fu nuns join this list of change-making heroes as Indian women who have tirelessly championed gender equality and continue to break barriers in India and throughout Asia. Today, they are over 700 Kung Fu nuns and they are the only Buddhist nuns in the world to practice Kung Fu. The nuns use their martial arts expertise to challenge gender roles in India’s conservative culture.
Gyalwang Drukpa, the head of the Drukpa Lineage school, has also encouraged the nuns to learn skills traditionally reserved for men, such as plumbing, electrical fittings, typing, and cycling – and installed the nuns in leadership roles at Drukpa monasteries.
The nuns also teach martial arts to women for their self-defence. They host self-defence workshops for Himalayan women and girls in areas where violence against women is endemic.
“We associate nuns with peace, meditation, and sacrosanctity. This effort of practising Kung-fu just sets an example of how nuns can rise from the stereotypes attached to them,” said Samridhi Chaturvedi, who works at ‘Live to love’ international, an NGO that is associated with the Kung-fu program.
Apart from providing training on self-defence, nuns also raise awareness about human trafficking that was prevalent in the Himalayan region especially at the time of Nepal earthquake. To promote gender equality, the nuns organised several enormous bicycle yatras, pedalling thousands of kilometres through treacherous terrain and hostile weather.
They perform cycle-yatra every year where they venture into remote areas of Nepal, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh to raise awareness on social issues like climate change, refraining people from using plastic, planting more trees. The nuns also look after the human trafficking cases that have plagued the Indian subcontinent.
“We cover around 4500 kilometres on cycle. Reaching out door-to-door and raising awareness of issues that are important but get sidelined. This year we travelled from Kathmandu to Ladakh on a bicycle,” said Rupa, a Drukpa nun.
The bravery and resilience of the young nuns were praised by many when the earthquake struck Nepal in April 2015. Refusing to evacuate, the nuns trekked to the villages to remove rubble, clear pathways and distribute food to survivors. It was a powerful display of courage and humanitarianism, that is also rooted in Buddhist principles.
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