Future Ground

“Why was his Holiness asking for boys to join the monastic order, and not girls? Why was there no vacancy for girls? I begged my school principle and he said if I really want to join, he’ll find a place for me.”–Karma Tsulmo, 18, English teacher at the Pema Choeling Institute.

Karma Tsulmo stands on the future site of the Pema Choeling Nunnery and Institute for Buddhist studies. The Institute will be the first to grant women the equivalent of a master’s degree in dharma studies. The school has 95 nuns, and Karma Tsulmo teaches eleven of them English.

The nuns here face many problems. They have no formal classrooms and only temporary living quarters. They lack basic Information about womens' health issues and nutrition; many nuns do not appear to be eating a balanced diet. A number of young nuns, including 18 year-old Karma Tsulmo, have started growing white hair. Part of the problem may be lack of sufficient funding and education, and another problem may be that all the teachers are monks--men who feel uncomfortable communicating with the nuns about conditions such as menstrual pain or diet. The monks hope that once some of the women graduate from their studies, they can find nuns to teach and assume responsibility for the institute.