For over a decade now, the Kung Fu Nuns have been making international headlines with their inspirational work. Based in Nepal, the Kung Fu Nuns are part of the Drukpa Lineage of Indian Buddhism, which has a millennium-old history that traces back to the Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha Naropa. As part of their practice, the nuns study Kung Fu for self-cultivation and to fortify themselves for their missions. They did a 5200-mile Bicycle Yatra for Peace that went from Kathmandu, Nepal to Ladakh, India, to bring attention to human trafficking. They run free health clinics, respond to animal rescues, and clean up plastic litter in the Himalaya and India. Today, the Drukpa order has over 700 nuns, with a long wait list for new members.

In October 2020, it was announced that the Kung Fu Nuns would receive the Atlantic Council’s prestigious Unsung Heroes Award in Washington D.C. for their courageous work in gender equality, environmentalism, and humanitarian aid. Among their many ongoing projects including disaster relief and the protection of young girls against violence, the Kung Fu Nuns have helped mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in Nepal and India, providing neglected villages with critical food, supplies, and hygiene education. Their acceptance of the Unsung Heroes Award provided the opportunity to interview two of the Kung Fu Nuns via email – Jigme Migyur Palmo from Ladakh, India who has been a nun for 13 years and Jigme Konchok Lhamo from Himachal Pradesh, India who became a nun 14 years ago – to learn more about their unique and disciplined lifestyle, as well as their ongoing mission.

GENE: How many times have Kung Fu nun representatives visited the United States now?

Nuns: We visited the United States in October 2019. We were there to receive the Asia Society Game Changers Award. During the visit, we discussed our mission of spreading environmentalism and gender equality with schools, universities, senators, and congress members and with organizations like UN Women, Obama Foundation etc. Kung Fu Nuns’ representatives have visited the United States once to receive Asia Game Changer Award in 2019.

GENE: What specific style of Kung Fu do the Kung Fu Nuns practice?

Nuns: We practice the ‘Wushu’ style of Kung Fu.

GENE: What are some of the recent projects of the Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery?

Nuns: The first thing we always do as nuns is to dedicate all our prayers to all the sentient beings around the world. We have been doing specific prayers for the people who are sick and for people who lost their loved ones because of the pandemic and in natural disasters. But, we also think that’s not enough, we believe in putting our compassion into action. Helping others is our religion.

In the Himalayas, we do not have big hospitals like other places, so we really cannot afford to get COVID. When COVID19 hit, we turned our efforts to the villagers who had no food or supplies to survive lockdown and no education on how to protect themselves from the virus. Women are the first to suffer when a disaster like this hits. They have fewer chances of getting healthcare, education, and income to protect themselves. But, we did everything to give these women a fighting chance. We educated women on preventing the spread of COVID. These women became heroes in their villages as they passed on this knowledge to their children and family members, keeping them safe.

We distributed food and masks to people in need. We were able to reach out to families and supply them the basic amenities. We gave food to stray animals during lockdown and, also, adopted some of them who needed care. We made awareness videos on social media on how to maintain social distancing, and the importance of regularly washing our hands and wearing masks.

Apart from this, we also perform day-to-day work at our nunnery. When needed, we take on the role of a plumber, electrician and even that of a carpenter. We believe in learning each day and becoming self-sufficient.

GENE: How are the Kung Fu Nuns spreading awareness about your practice and other causes?

Nuns: We spread our message of gender equality and environmental sustainability not only in the remote villages of the Himalayas but wherever we go in the world. In the Himalayas, we organize "Bicycle Yatras” in which, we cycle for thousands of kilometers. We stop at every village on our way and mobilize the communities by speaking against human trafficking and convincing families to give equal rights and opportunities to girls. We organize self-defense trainings for young girls so they develop confidence and learn to protect themselves on their own. From time to time, we organize clean-up drives in Nepal and India with the help of the volunteers and promote the message of keeping the nature and our surrounding clean. We believe that no one will come to rescue us and we need to be our own heroes.

GENE: How has the pandemic affected the Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery?

Nuns: For the time being, the cycle yatras, pad yatras, cleaning campaigns, heritage preservation, and self-defense workshops that we organized had to be paused. Our work did not end here, we worked day and night to provide basic amenities to the local community and create awareness on COVID measure.

Hopefully, this time shall pass too and we would be able to re-start our initiatives. For the time being, by the means of social media, we are continuing to spread our message.

GENE: Do you have any suggestions on how our readers might alleviate the stress induced by the pandemic?

Nuns:  We spoke with few of our fellow nuns and this is what they say:

1. I think that it is very important to understand our lives are impermanent and that change is the only constant. This difficult time will also pass. At the same time, we all still need to be very cautious about the virus and follow the COVID measures: social distancing, wearing masks, wash hands regularly. We know each one of us have different set of problems some are going through more problems than others. All we want people to know is that- do not lose hope in yourself. Be like a sun as it shines daily, every morning, no matter what.

2. Give the time and the situation, it is important to take precautions and not panic. As panicking would not help us deal with the situation. Breathe. And, take each day as it comes.

3. We also hope that everyone realizes that how much strength and confidence women have inside of them. And when COVID is over, we hope we will all stand up together to create a better world of equality and compassion.

4. Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give. We want to encourage everyone to be kind towards fellow humans, animals, the earth, and oneself.

GENE: Can you explain how the Kung Fu Nuns work towards gender equality?

Nuns: 1: We organize self-defense training workshops for girls to build confidence and strength.

2: We raise awareness on the importance of a girl child. During our cycle yatras and pad yatras, we stop at different villages and educate the people to give equal rights to the girls/women of the community. As girls are valuable and powerful, and nothing can stop them – women can do anything that men can do! Often times even better. We tell the girls that we meet that if we can practice Kung Fu and learn to defend ourselves, so can you; if we can exercise and ride bicycles and lead construction projects and teach children, then you can do all that too. After all, women and girls have to support each other – we’re all better when we’re in it together.

3: We don't believe in the term “women empowerment” as it means giving the power or passing down the power down to someone. We believe that every girl has her own power and all we have to do is ignite it.

GENE: For someone who is just beginning to investigate Buddhism, what sutra would you recommend?

Nuns: As a beginner, one should start with Sutrayana or Hinayana. They discuss the importance of discipline in our lives. It is crucial for one to be disciplined from outside and inside, both. Buddha has also shown Sutrayana as a way to attain discipline. For the people who are new to this, it is difficult to directly understand Mahayana and Vajrayana therefore, they should begin with Sutrayana first.

We believe that Buddhism means loving fearlessly, caring fiercely and sometimes it means breaking stereotypes. Buddhism means being brave and confident so that you can help more people. It means constant discipline and a commitment to helping all sentient beings – no matter their race, gender, background, or where they come from.

GENE: What sutras are predominant in the Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery?

Nuns: We are the practitioners of Vajrayana. There are many sutras we practice but, the most important is Prjana Paramita. The social activities or any kind of work we do is a reflection of this practice. We believe in putting our spiritual practice and compassion into action.

GENE: Do you have any advice for someone contemplating entering monastic life?

Nuns: We don't have any special advice to give. But, if there is one thing that we would want people to know is that one has to comply with the vows that they take in the beginning and follow a disciplined lifestyle.

To live a monastic life is a personal choice and one should contemplate on their decision before joining.

GENE: What is the biggest misconception you hear from non-monastics about monastic life?

Nuns: The biggest misconception is that people think monastic life is very easy i.e. we don't have to do anything except for meditation and recitation, but we don't agree with that. Our life is as difficult as a non-monastic person’s life is, sometimes even more!

GENE: What does a typical day in the monastery look like? What time to you rise? When do you eat? When do you train? When do you meditate? When do you go to sleep?

Nuns: Our day starts at 3am in the morning with meditation. Then, at 5am, we practice our daily prayers together in our main temple for 2 hours or sometimes even for the whole day to benefit all sentient beings.

At 5 pm we practice Kung Fu. Like Buddhism, Kung Fu requires focus and discipline – we train for three hours a day and it sharpens our bodies and our minds. It not only helps us build physical strength but, also, mental strength. Before COVID, we practiced cycling to build strength and fitness for our cycle/pad yatras and relief aid work.

We don’t eat dinner and we sleep at 10pm.

GENE: Has there been any feature length documentaries about the Kung Fu Nuns yet? If not, are there any plans for something like that?

Nuns: There is a documentary on the pad yatra by the name of PAD YATRA: A Green Odyssey. It won Best Cinematography, DOCUTAH Film Festival (2012), Best Environmental Film, Big Bear Film Festival (2012), among several other awards and nominations. It was documented Wendy Lee. Apart from this, our story has been shared with various platforms like: Great Big Story, BBC Reel, Global Citizen, and Thomson Reuters. 

GENE: Have any of the Kung Fu Nuns had to use their skills in self-defense yet?

Nuns: We started learning Kung Fu as a means of gaining confidence when we were receiving backlash from the conservative pockets. Kung Fu came in very handy during the 2015 Earthquake of Nepal. We were physically and mentally strong enough to reach places where even the government was too scared to go. We helped the remotest communities with the food supplies and rescued people in need.

GENE: Have any Westerners joined the Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery yet?

Nuns: We have many dharma brothers and sisters around the world but they haven't specifically joined our nunnery.

GENE: What is the biggest challenge facing the Kung Fu Nuns today?

Nuns: As our interaction with the Himalayan community has become restrictive. We are being unable to communicate with them about women rights, access to equal opportunities, human trafficking and violence against women. While we are able to motivate the people by means of social media, there are parts of the Himalayas that have no network connectivity. We are unable to spread the measures of COVID safety and kindness with them.

GENE: With the political divisions in the United States now, do you have any advice for our readers?

Nuns: We all would want them to work towards creating a better and a peaceful society. But, most importantly, it starts with self so we would want the people to start taking care of themselves and their surroundings first.

Also, listen more actively and ask more questions. It is too easy to dismiss someone who thinks differently than you or looks differently than you. We would challenge Americans – and everyone around the world – to take the time to listen to views that are different than their own. It is like in martial arts, before you decide to strike, you always observe before you act. We recommend that people observe more before they make judgments.

GENE: What’s next for the Kung Fu Nuns?

Nuns: We hope that the pandemic ends soon so that we can go back to our social work. For now, we are continuing to spread our message through our social media and whatever minimal interaction we have with the local people. For us, for future lies in working towards creating a safer environment, by:

- Training females in defensive tools for common attacks and spread information to prevent trafficking

- Mobilize communities to save resources for the future generations

- Provide the Himalayan community with aid and support

For more on the nuns of the Druk Gawa Khilwa Nunnery, read Buddhist Nuns Fight New Battles with Kung Fu by Lori Ann White in our January+February 2018 issue of Kung Fu Tai Chi.