Welcome to Jamyang Choling Institute

An Innovative Education Project That Nurtures The Spiritual and Intellectual Potential

of Buddhist Women

2011 Annual Report of

Jamyang Choling Institute

Download our annual report in PDF

General Information

In 2011 we had 115 students, including 112 nuns and three lay students. Our studies went smoothly throughout the year. We had six philosophy teachers, including four of our Geshe staff teachers and two of our senior nuns who are now teaching philosophy. Unfortunately one of our philosophy teachers became ill and was unable to teach. Another of our long term teachers of Tibetan Grammar fell seriously ill and required several head surgeries and while he was recovering he suffered a stroke. He is partially paralyzed, is unable to teach and is attending physical therapy. He is cared for around the clock by two nuns. We hope in future that one of our senior nuns will teach Tibetan Grammar.

The senior nuns in McLeod Ganj, 11 in total, completed their philosophical studies (one was unable to finish due to illness, she completed her studies up to the Vinaya). The senior nuns in Gharoh have completed 16 years of study and finished their second year of their course on the Vinaya (Monastic discipline). Another class in Gharoh finished their second year of study of the Abhidharma Kosha. The third class finished their fifth year studying "The Perfection of Wisdom." The fourth class completed the third year of "The Perfection of Wisdom." The fifth class completed the preliminary Buddhist philosophy and debate studies and they began to study "The Perfection of Wisdom," and Tibetan Grammar and poetry. Each year we run classes and have examinations for each subject for five different levels of study.

Two of our senior nuns, Ven Tenzin Lhadron and Ven Lobsang Chodon, continued to teach Buddhist philosophy at Gharoh. Our elected officer nuns were busy running the nunnery.

We had one Canadian and one Australian volunteer English teacher in 2011. When we did not have a volunteer English teacher in residence, one nun student and one lay student taught English and two of our senior nuns continued to teach Hindi at Gharoh.

15 students and one teacher from the Lower TCV school studied with our nuns from June 1-10, 2011 (during their school holiday) to refine their knowledge and skills. They attended school with the nuns and debated with them and shared their knowledge with each other. The program was a success and everyone who participated enjoyed it.

Our Health Care program this year was organized again by Rita and her husband Paolo from Italy who invited two doctors from Italy and two dentists from Delek Hospital. They spent one day at Gharoh, our main nunnery. In addition, there was one health care workshop provided by the Religious Office of the Tibetan Government to give basic hygiene and health care instruction to 15 nuns. There were two doctors from MenTseKhan (the Tibetan medical institute).

In 2009 we put in a request to the Tibetan Nun's Project that they help us with teacher's salaries and Health Care. They agreed to give us two teachers' salaries for one year and they have extended their support. This support has been a great help to us. Because of the tremendous medical expenses we have had we have started a Health Care Fund for the nunnery to help the nuns and teachers with emergency medical and dental treatment as well as ongoing care.

Participation:

Two of our senior nuns, Geden Zangmo and Tsering Tsomo, attended the Sakyadita International Buddhist Women's conference in Bangkok.

Two of our nuns, Tenzin Lhadron and Lobsang Chodon attended the Emory-Tibetan five year science program at Sarah College and two of our nuns, Dolma Tsering and Choying Dolma, attended the science program in Deer Park, Bir, India.

Many Hindi speaking Indians have shown an interest in learning about Buddhism, and have requested that His Holiness the Dalai Lama help them in this regard. Therefore in 2010 the Tibetan Religious and Cultural Dept set up an 8 month training program at Sarah College in Dharamsala to train teachers already proficient in Buddhist Philosophy to teach Buddhism in the Hindi language. This program was attended by around 22 monks and 4 nuns from different monasteries and nunneries. The program has been extended and will begin again after the Tibetan new year. One nun from our nunnery, Ven Sonam Dekyi had the opportunity to participate in this program and she will continue to participate.

On the 20th of September to 20th of October, 30 students, two teachers and one of our senior nuns (Ven. Tenzin Lhadron) participated in the annual Tibetan nuns' debate session (Jang Gunchoe) at Jangchub Choling Nunnery in South India. This is always a wonderful and exciting opportunity for nuns to share knowledge and wisdom. It also deepens our understanding of Buddhist reasoning and logic.

In 2011 110 of our nuns attended the Kalachakra initiation in Bodhgaya with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Some went on pilgrimage after the teaching and some returned to the nunnery to study. Our classes start again February 1, 2012.

How we used your financial contribution:
The financial contributions we have received have been very beneficial to us. Due to our extensive expenses and the rising cost of living in India it was a difficult year for Jamyang Choling financially. We did our best to provide educational facilities, food, accommodation, and healthcare to cover the basic needs of all of our 112 nuns, three lay students and to our teachers.

Administration:

Board of Directors: A nine -member Board comprising a director (our principal philosophy teacher) and eight senior nuns, takes full responsibility for the management of Jamyang Choling Institute. The Board held a meeting every three months to discuss about administration, education, health, problem solving, and decision making as well as planning for the Institute's future. Jamyang Choling Institute is unique and among the first Tibetan Buddhist womens' educational projects to be fully managed and administered by its own community of nuns. And most of our students now have language skills so they can communicate directly with Indian government officials, Westerners, and local people.

As we mentioned 11 of senior nuns at Gharoh completed their highest degree in Buddhist Philosophy. We began our study program many years ago and some of them have become teachers of our community and social workers. Great progress has also been made in terms of creating a suitable environment for a nunnery. We are planning to provide educational opportunities for as many young nuns and lay girls as possible. We hope to admit 25-30 new students in 2012.

We have done our best in a difficult financial year for Jamyang Choling. We were only able to carry on due to your support and we offer our sincere thanks and appreciation for your kindness. We truly appreciate your great generosity and kind support which has made for great positive change in terms of our education, well- being and the smooth functioning of the Institute.

Future plans:

We are hoping to offer online puja (prayer service) sponsorship starting in 2012. This will allow our friends and supporters to request special prayers and pujas to be done at the nunnery online with a secure credit card transaction via Paypal. We hope this will be a helpful service to our friends in the west.

We hope to offer admission to 25-30 new students in 2012. To allow this we must build new student housing. We will host the debate tournament in 2012 and will need to accommodate the visiting nuns then. Other construction projects that we hope to accomplish are: a 10 room Retreat Building and a security fence-wall renovation. The fence is quite old and in poor repair. We have had security problems with thieves coming to the nunnery and breaking in to rooms and we are concerned for the nuns' safety. Therefore we would like to repair the old security fence and also make it higher and more secure.

It is our sincere and genuine hope that you will be able to continue to provide us with financial assistance and we would appreciate your assistance in telling your interested friends about our mission and our needs. Your contributions make it possible for more sincere nuns and lay people to benefit from authentic dharma study and practice.

We thank all our friends and supporters for your generous and caring support for our educational program, which we value so much. We are also grateful to those who have donated their time and energy to our nunnery, and to those who have encouraged and appreciated our work.

Your support is indispensable for our ongoing success, and we give thanks and prayers for the well being of all our supporters and friends each day. We wholeheartedly thank you for your continuing support of Jamyang Choling Institute.

Tashi Delek to all,

Tenzin Deden

©Jamyang Choling Institute, Dharamsala, India.

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