The 90 anims (nuns) of Pema Choling Anim Shaydra, their ages ranging from 11 to 66 years, are ensuring their food for the year, planting potatoes, barley, and other hardy crops that survive in Bumthang’s harsh climate. In this deeply spiritual valley of central Bhutan, food is grown in traditional style, the hard way.
The Shaydra, established in 2001, is the highest centre of learning for nuns in Bhutan. The students follow a Buddhist curriculum that will enable them to graduate with a masters degree in Buddhist Philosophy after nine years.
It is affiliated to the Gangtoe Rigzhung Shaydra in Phobjikha established by Gangtoe Trulku Rinpoche.
The core subjects for the nuns’ education include language, logic, philosophy, history and debate. Apart from dharma studies, they also learn English, Dzongkha, mathematics, science and geography based on textbooks borrowed from schools nearby. The first batch of 14 anims are in their third year of higher secondary study, while newcomers start studying prayer books and writing. Several anims who have completed some primary schooling in secular schools help to teach some of the subjects.
“When I see these young girls studying the dharma I feel so moved,” says Anim Bidha, her hands folded as if in prayer while her younger colleagues hide shy smiles behind their hands. “They are so lucky to be able to learn the dharma at this age. They will not regret this.”
The anims
Anim Karma Tshomo, 17, comes from Trashigang. She left school after class nine and decided to join the Shaydra when it was first set up. Some animsare as young as 11-year old Deki Yangzom from Merak, a recent arrival. Her parents registered her with the Shaydra to study the dharma.
The nuns take turns to cook, clean and organise their makeshift camp that has been established on land loaned to them by local villagers while their permanent hostels are built. They tend to their kitchen gardening with a zeal that accompanies everything they do.
They chatter and giggle as they show visitors the four accra buildings covered by some old corrugated iron roofing sheets provided by the dzongkhag administration.
The hostels are neat and tidy. The walls and ceilings are covered with plastic sheets and newspapers for insulation. Mattresses line the wooden floor and their plastic mat coverings provide a splash of colour in a plain environment.
The rooms are packed with 15 to 20 nuns each. Above each of their sleeping areas are open cardboard boxes cut into mini “altars” packed with pictures of deities, trulkus and religious figures.
The Shaydra’s Khenpo, Gyeltshen, said that the nuns were committed to their studies. Enrollment had gone up nearly seven times in three years. And the demand for seats is increasing rapidly.
Dharma studies for women
“During the Buddha’s time women had the opportunity to study the dharma but the number of nunneries had reduced over the years,” said Gangtoe Trulku. “We hope to give women an equal opportunity to pursue higher studies in dharma.”
There are about 500 nuns in less than a dozen nunneries all over Bhutan. The dratshang lhentshog (central monastic body) sees Buddhist Shaydras as an option after mainstream education, especially for the many teenage girls who have dropped out of regular schools.
The Pema Choling Shaydra is the only Shaydra offering higher Buddhist studies. Other anim Shaydras offer more basic education and shorter undergraduate courses.
There is a shortage of women teachers well versed in dharma studies with the experience to manage schools. Pema Choling will prepare the nuns to become khenpos (the learned ones) and teachers within their own communities. A long-term goal for them is to start schools, train other women, and provide education opportunities for the next generation of girls in Bhutan, according to Gangtoe Trulku who started the Shaydra after numerous requests made by women around the country.
The director of the dratshang lhentshog, Nawang Phuntshog, said many women, on their own, were registering in nunneries but the education opportunities for them were limited.
The dratshang, however, had plans to build anim Shaydras in Mongar, Kurtoe and Lhuentse. The choethuen tshogpa had just started building an anim Shaydra in Sershong Geog in Geylephu that will offer a basic degree course.
Basic challenges
The spiritual path for the nuns at Pema Choling already has some basic challenges. “We cannot study properly at night because it is too crowded,” says 23-year old Rinzin who was inspired to join the Shaydra after attending a pilgrimage to Bodghaya with her mother. “It is noisy and very difficult for us to concentrate.”
One classroom serves as a temporary lhakhang (chapel) and lessons are held in hostels or outdoors when the day is nice. The nearest health facility is 15 kilometres away, a two and a half hour walk.
But the nuns are looking forward to new infrastructure. The Shaydra is raising funds for a hostel and classroom block and a monastery. The hostel will be built as a priority even before the main lhakhang. There are also plans to establish meditation centers around the nunnery for nuns who graduate and want to continue dharma practice.
In the meantime, nuns like Rinzin Lham and her friends are working hard to fulfill their dream of becoming dharma teachers one day. “My dream is to go back to my community and to spread the dharma among our people.”
