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Our vision
and mission.
A Non-sectarian Nunnery
Following the advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the
nunnery will encourage interaction among the four great
lineages of Buddhism by welcoming nuns and teachers from
each of these lineages. While the teachers we invite will
be chosen on the basis of their qualification, a special
effort will be made to invite women who have established
their credentials as Buddhist teachers and practitioners.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, granted in an audience in
October 2000, to the two nuns Jampa Lhatso and Tenzin
Sangmo, and the kind sponsor who initiated this project.
During this meeting, His Holiness expressed his understanding
of the problems facing Western nuns and strongly emphasized
the importance and great benefit of this project. He gave
the name Thösamling for this new project. What means
place for hearing & contemplating and philosophical studies
& reflection.
The Situation of Western Nuns
Western nuns who have chosen to move to India exhibit
a strong desire to transform their lives according to
the teachings of the Buddha. They have forsaken the material
world of the West for an environment that will support
them in their spiritual practice as Buddhists. They have
chosen to live in a monastic community that has traditions
reaching back 2.500 years, to the time of the Buddha himself.
They come from the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia
– many have left behind successful professional careers
and families- lives that are fulfilling by most standards
in the West.
The road to solid education and support
from the religious and lay community is a long one for
both Tibetan Buddhist nuns and Western Tibetan nuns alike.
The decision to take ordination as a nun is never made
in haste; for most nuns it is a step that comes only after
years of evaluation and dedicated spiritual practice.
Many of the challenges for Tibetan and Western nuns are
the same: to build and maintain a strong spiritual practice,
to decry the trappings of the lay life and to be part
of a community that is dedicated to spiritual beliefs.
Yet some challenges have emerged as unique to the place
of Western nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist monastic tradition.
After receiving ordination, no matter how strong the commitment
to the spiritual life as a nun, the practical realities
for Western nuns living in Asia can be quite daunting.
While the entire Tibetan Buddhist monastic community struggles
with the reality of finding accommodations appropriate
for spiritual practice, Western nuns often have even greater
difficulty. The Tibetan nunneries are severely overcrowded
due to continuing influx of Tibetan refugee nuns who are
escaping from Chinese-occupied Tibet and seeking safe
haven in India, where they can benefit from religious
freedom. The need to support the Tibetan monastics at
the same time makes it difficult to find spaces in nunneries
for Western nuns. As a result they, in almost every case,
end to live outside the monastic setting that they believe
would best support their practice. Most Western nuns in
India live alone, renting small rooms in guesthouses.
They are away from the mainstream of daily spiritual support
that is of such benefit for those who have chosen the
monastic path.
Additional problems arise with the learning
of the Tibetan language, the foundation of the Tibetan
sacred texts and the language of medium for most teachings
on Tibetan Buddhism. Many Western nuns begin to study
Tibetan language with the desire to acquire the deeper
knowledge of the profound Tibetan scriptures, but are
then stymied in their pursuit. It is difficult to find
classes for Westerners in the Tibetan communities that
are solid, continuous and address the Buddhist teachings
as the basis for language learning. Western nuns are often
encouraged to go to a nunnery to find teachers for Tibetan
Language, but this is not a viable solution as there are
no Tibetan nuns trained to teach Tibetan as a foreign
language and few know English well enough to be teaching
partners for Westerners.
The result of both of these dilemmas is a growing Sangha
of Western Buddhist nuns without a physical community.
This reality works against the knowledge that the most
successful path to being a nun is to live in a supportive
spiritual environment, with other ordained members of
the Sangha. Because of concern by members of both the
monastic and lay community, the Western nuns have been
guided by well-respected teachers to build their own physical
nunnery that can directly address the unique concerns
of the Western nuns.
The education offered through the Thösamling Nunnery
will develop qualified teachers who can then return to
the West, more prepared to help others, to sustain their
commitments of ordination and to nurture the integration
of Buddhist values into Western society.
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