Geden Choeling, of the Gelukpa tradition is the oldest nunnery in Dharamsala. A number of the nuns are over 60 years old. Over 120 nuns live and study in the small nunnery.

In the early 1960's several nuns fled the Nechung Ri Nunnery in Tibet, that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. With no nunnery in existence these women worked with Tibetan children until a number of refugee nuns gathered together with the purpose of building a nunnery. As there were nuns from different nunneries in Tibet, they decided on "Geden Choeling" which means "Home of the virtuous ones who devote their lives to the Buddha Dharma".

Borrowing pots and pans and 600 rupees from a monk they were able to rent an old house in the forest above McLeod Ganj and performed the opening ceremony in December of 1973.

From such humble beginnings, these determined women raised and borrowed enough money to begin to build housing and a temple. At the very beginning they built with their own hands; today the nunnery houses over 120 nuns -- far more than its intended capacity.

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