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Mongolian Girls to Train as Nuns

PalzangPalzang Veteran
edited October 2007 in Buddhism Today
While Buddhist monks are being brutally suppressed in China and Burma, there is some good news in the world. Khamar Monastery, located in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, has been carrying out an extensive rebuilding program since the fall of the totalitarian Communist government in 1990-92. As an important part of that program they have been sending their sons to India to receive formal training as monks to replace their lost spiritual heritage. This year, however, marks the first time that they will be sending their daughters for training as nuns. They will have the precious opportunity to undergo training at Tsogyal Shedrup Dargyeling Nunnery at Namdroling Monastery in India, under the overall guidance of HH Penor Rinpoche. This is an extraordinary event in the history of the rebirth of Buddhism in a former atheistic Communist state. Danzan Ravjaa, the Mongolian Mahasiddha who built Khamar Monastery originally in the 19th Century, was a great supporter of women in Buddhism (almost unheard of at the time), and the temple he built for women at the monastery, Toinag Datsan, was renowned for the quality of its female practitioners. These young women will return to Mongolia to be the first residents at the rebuilt temple. You can help with this effort. For more information, go to Tara.org.

Comments

  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited October 2007
    Wonderful news indeed, Palzang!
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited October 2007
    I wish I was Mongolian - !! :D

    Great news!!:bigclap::thumbsup::cheer:
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited October 2007
    You are, Fede. We all are....

    Palzang
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited October 2007
    Oh, Pally, yes I know.... but, you know.....!:rocker::type:
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited October 2007
    Palzang wrote: »
    While Buddhist monks are being brutally suppressed in China and Burma, there is some good news in the world. Khamar Monastery, located in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, has been carrying out an extensive rebuilding program since the fall of the totalitarian Communist government in 1990-92. As an important part of that program they have been sending their sons to India to receive formal training as monks to replace their lost spiritual heritage. This year, however, marks the first time that they will be sending their daughters for training as nuns. They will have the precious opportunity to undergo training at Tsogyal Shedrup Dargyeling Nunnery at Namdroling Monastery in India, under the overall guidance of HH Penor Rinpoche. This is an extraordinary event in the history of the rebirth of Buddhism in a former atheistic Communist state. Danzan Ravjaa, the Mongolian Mahasiddha who built Khamar Monastery originally in the 19th Century, was a great supporter of women in Buddhism (almost unheard of at the time), and the temple he built for women at the monastery, Toinag Datsan, was renowned for the quality of its female practitioners. These young women will return to Mongolia to be the first residents at the rebuilt temple. You can help with this effort. For more information, go to Tara.org.

    Does this also mean that there is now a recognised lineage for ordination of women, Palzang-la? I seem to remember that this has been a problem in the Tibetan tradition.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited October 2007
    Well, you're kind of right, Simon. There has always been an ordination lineage for women in Tibet since the time of Padmasambhava and Santarakshita, but what was lost was the lineage of full ordination for women in the Tibetan tradition. This occurred during the reign of the evil anti-Buddhist king Langdarma who brutally suppressed Buddhism in Tibet and drove it underground (sort of like the Chinese). His regime eliminated the female lineage of full ordination by simply killing off all the fully ordained nuns. So, you may ask, if someone like the Dalai Lama or HH Penor Rinpoche can ordain gelong monks, why can't they just ordain gelongma (fully ordained) nuns as well? The difference is that in order to ordain someone you must also carry the same vows that you are giving to them, and fully ordained nuns carry more vows than monks (you know, those girls are just so much harder to control!). Monks can ordain women as gyetsul (novice) as those vows are the same for men and women. There is also an intermediate level of vows called gelobma that women can also receive, again because the vows are the same for both genders. Actually some of the nuns at our temple hold those vows. So that explains it.

    Interestingly, Langdarma was also responsible for the prevalence of lay lamas in the Nyingmapa. As I mentioned, Buddhism was driven underground during Langdarma's reign of terror, so for the most part lamas lived as lay people. This tradition continued after Langdarma was assassinated - by a Buddhist monk. That Buddhist monk, by the way, is known as HH Kusum Lingpa in this life.

    All this happened before the second wave of Buddhism, known as the New Translation schools (Kagyu, Shakya and later Gelug) appeared in Tibet.

    Palzang
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