Our Mission

The Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP) provides education and support to nuns and nunneries in India and Nepal from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. TNP is dedicated to:

• Improving standards of food, sanitation, medical care, and education in Tibetan nunneries.
• Working towards future self-sufficiency through educational and training opportunities.
• Training nuns to take leadership and service roles within their communities.
• Improving the level & status of ordained Buddhist women.
• Assisting recently arrived refugee nuns from Tibet.
• Continuing to establish further facilities for Buddhist nuns.

The Beginning

A group of 66 refugee nuns appeared overnight on the streets of Dharamsala, India. They had been on a two-year pilgrimage from eastern Tibet that had ended in a journey over the Himalayas. Ill and exhausted, they had nowhere to go. The Tibetan Women's Association organized emergency assistance to provide their basic needs and the Nuns Project became active in finding a long-term solution to the problem of how to secure housing, medical care and most importantly, education for refugee nuns. The Project created a sponsorship program, reaching out to individuals around the world.

Funding

The Project is primarily funded by generous donations from individuals and organizations. Funding has come from the Heinrich Boll Foundation of Germany; the Norweigan Tibet Committee Women's Group and the Norweigan organizations Fokus and Norad; the Swedish foundation Soir-IM; the American Himalayan Foundation; Rigpa Foundation of London; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hershey Family Foundation, and the Betsy Gordon Foundation. Money also derives from the nuns' income-generating projects.

Our Leadership

Director Rinchen Khando Choegyal, is a former Minister of Education in the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and sister-in-law of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She resides in Dharamsala.

Co-Director Elizabeth Napper, PhD., a scholar of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, is author of Dependant Arising and Emptiness and co-editor of Kindness, Clarity and Insight, by HH the Dalai Lama. She divides her time between Dharamsala and the U.S.

Co-Director Venerable Lobsang Dechen, received her B.A. from St. Bedes in Shimla and her B. of Ed. from Punjab University in Chandigarh. She resides at Geden Choeling Nunnery in upper McLeod Ganj.

Our Staff
All of our program work takes place in North India, where we have an office within the Dolma Ling complex staffed largely by lay Tibetans, who are increasingly assisted by the nuns themselves. We have a small administrative and fund-raising office in Seattle, WA which staffed by one full-time and one part-time person, assisted by a number of committed volunteers. It is the vision of this organization that, after completion of the educational programs currently being set up, all of the administration of the Tibetan Nuns Project will be carried out by the nuns themselves.

Web site credits

TNP Photography
Rob Holmes
Jeff Davis