On a hilltop overlooking a small town 40 km from Dharamsala is Tilokpur Nunnery, at the site of Tilopa's cave (a Tibetan saint). It was founded in 1966 by Mrs. Freda Bedi, a British nun under the previous Karmapa Rinpoche It is the oldest Kagyu nunnery outside of Tibet. Sixty-five nuns from Tibet, the Himalayas and Mustang (Nepal) live here. The oldest nun is over 80; the youngest is 12 years old.

The nuns are under the spiritual guidance of Tai Situ Rinpoche, and the nuns regularly participate in 3-year retreats at Situ Rinpoche's facility in Bir, Sherap Ling.

It is a small, but well run nunnery that is supported primarily by doing prayers for the exile community. However, the nuns have been hampered in their abilities to develop and sustain themselves by the general lack of education. The Nuns Project has helped them to start basic classes in Tibetan and English. The biggest problem is in finding and keeping teachers. Now that basic literacy has been accomplished, if a teacher can be found, they will also add instruction in key texts of their Kagyu tradition.

Read the story of a Tilokpur nun.

The Tilokpur nuns recently purchased a 4-acre plot of land on which to begin the construction of a shedra or institute of Buddhist learning.