Nepal's kung fu nuns kick off reopening of nunnery to public after five years

The Manila Times

Nepal's kung fu nuns kick off reopening of nunnery to public after five years  About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering wellwishers at the long-awaited reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.  The nuns of the hill-top Druk Amitabha Monastery, put on the show of strength to mark the institution's reopening five years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors to the public.  The group of kung fu nuns, aged from 17-30, are members of the 1,000 year-old Drukpa lineage, which gives nuns equal status as monks and is the only female order in the patriarchal Buddhist monastic system.  Usually, nuns are expected to cook and clean and are not allowed to practise any form of martial art. But His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, a monk who ranks only slightly below the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, decided to train women in kung fu to improve their health and spiritual well-being.  He opened the nunnery in 2009 and it now has 300 members aged between six and 54.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Sign up to our newsletters: https://tmt.ph/newsletters   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #themanilatimes #worldnews #kungfu #nuns

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00:00So, when I was very little, when I was 12, I was a very rebellious kid, rebellious.

00:22I was, when people used to tell me, you shouldn't do this because you're a girl, I used to get

00:27very angry when I was little.

00:28I was always on that side of, my personality was that way.

00:32So when people, when His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, our root guru, came to our place and

00:37he talked about women empowerment, gender equality, how girls are important, how giving

00:42equal chances is important, I was very inspired and I followed him to be a nun.

00:47So, as a perspective from a Buddhist side, I think our main goal is to attain enlightenment

01:02as Buddha, but for now, as I am a lay, like a normal person, I think I would be more focusing

01:10on helping others, like we always say that helping others is our religion, whatever is

01:17more beneficial for other people, I would like to do that, like we do a lot of self-defence

01:23workshops and we do a lot for environment.

01:26I think that would be my goal for now, coming forward.

01:47I really want to become a nun and I have seen that nuns are doing lots of different works

02:00and they also perform the Kung Fu and you know, I am very happy, I am really attached

02:06with them and I really want to become a nun to help others, like they are helping lots

02:11of people at the time also, that's why I decided to become a nun at a young age.

02:16I don't have a very big thought, but I really want to help only a few people also, at the

02:25beginning, I only help some of the people I know.

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