Welcome to Jamyang Choling Institute

An Innovative Education Project That Nurtures The Spiritual and Intellectual Potential

of Buddhist Women

2010 Annual Report

General Information

In 2010 we had 115 students, including 111 nuns and four lay students. Our studies went smoothly, as usual, throughout the year. We had four regular philosophy teachers and two language teachers at our Gharoh campus. We offered admission to one Australian nun and one Vietnamese nun in March 2010. They joined Jamyang Choling Institute as regular students, and both did their examinations in Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan language and memorization of philosophical root texts and prayers. Consequently, they were both able to gain admission into the first year of Preliminary Buddhist Philosophy and Debate (‘Collective Topics/Duetra) with the group of 30 students admitted in 2009.

Two of our senior nuns, Ven Tenzin Lhadron and Ven Lobsang Chodon, teach Buddhist philosophy at Gharoh;  another, Ven Thinlay Chozom, was requested by Ven Tenzin Palmo to come and teach Buddhist Philosophy at Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery. Some of our nuns are busy with running the nunnery, and  one of our nuns did retreat for three months.

Our Canadian volunteer English teacher, Ms Ann Waters, again taught the senior nuns English for two months.  After that another Canadian English teacher Ms Tanya taught us until the end of August. Once again we were able to have the wonderful young English volunteer teachers from GAP volunteer program teach English at Gharoh.  Two of our lay students also taught English and three of our senior nuns continued to teach Hindi at Gharoh.

Each year we run classes and have examinations for each subject for five different levels of study.

This year seven nuns completed their first year of the Vinaya course. Six were able to take their examination at the end of the year. One was not able to take the examination, and therefore needed to take on  a work project.  She has offered to contribute to the nunnery by tailoring. Ten nuns completed their second year of the Abhidharma course. Again, one was not able to take part in the exam because of illness and she is contributing to  the nunnery by looking after the water supplies, and another is working in  the garden. Twenty seven students completed the second year of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) course. and another twenty two students completed the fourth year of  the Prajnaparamita course. Forty students completed Collective Topics and Awareness and preliminary Buddhist philosophy, they also  took exams in Tibetan language, English, and Memorization of Root Texts and Prayers.

In  May we  were extremely excited because we finally got  our FCRA (Foreign Contribution Registration Act) Certificate from the Home Minister in Delhi.  Now we can receive foreign donations without any legal difficulties. We can hardly believe this is true because it took several years of frustration and obstacles to accomplish. We faced many difficulties in the past with  our  sponsorships, including the banks  here returning the money to the donors. Hopefully our funds transfers will go smoothly from now on.

Our Health Care programme this year was organized by Ani Tenzin Ojong and Rita and her husband Paolo from Italy who invited  doctors from Italy and Poland. The doctors spent three days at Gharoh, our main nunnery. They first gave talks about the importance  of  hygiene for general health and  then provided  checkups for the  teachers and all the students as well as the  local villagers.  They contributed  medicine and gave us a donation for health care.  Their kind efforts were very generous and extremely helpful. We asked that they consider continuing in future to help us at our Institute, and they said that they will try to do so.

Last year we put in a request to the Tibetan Nun's Project that they help us with teachers salaries and Health Care. They agreed to give us two teachers' salaries for one year. This support has been a great help to us.

Participation:

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 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 programme was attended by around 22 monks and 4 nuns from different monasteries and nunneries. One nun from our nunnery, Ven Sonam Dekyi had the opportunity to participate in this program.

On the 20th of September to 20th of Octobe , 27 students,  two teachers and one of our senior nuns (Ven Lobsang Chodon) participated  in the annual Tibetan nuns' debate session (Jang Gunchoe ) at Dolma Ling Nunnery in Dharamsala. 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. Some of the debates were held under the watchful eye of His Holiness the Karmapa.

After completing the annual exams 20 nuns attended a Monlam Chenmo puja and five days teaching given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in January 2011 at Sarnath  U.P. Some of our nuns went to Bodhgaya to do 100,000  prostrations, and some went home over the holiday to visit their families.  The remaining nuns stayed on at our nunnery and caught up on mantra practice and memorizing texts.

How we used your financial contribution:

The financial contributions we have received have been very beneficial to us. We have been able to provide educational facilities, food, accommodation, and healthcare to cover the basic needs of all of our 111 nuns and four lay students. We purchase philosophy textbooks and language textbooks relevant to each individual's studies. Further, all students were provided with stationery materials, such as pens pencils, notebooks and so on.

The core of our study program is Buddhist philosophy.  However we need other sources of information to keep informed  about other facets of the world. Consequently ,we have been purchasing newspapers, magazines and monthly video news. Through the news we can learn about the problems and dynamics of violence in the world and consider how we, as Buddhist nuns can make our small contribution to the peace and happiness of our community and the larger world . It will certainly take time for our Tibetan Buddhist nuns to complete their training and enter into the broader global community to make their contribution. But many of our nuns would really like to participate as peace brokers or peacemakers.  To become a true force in society, nuns also need language skills, such as English, Hindi and so on. Here at Jamyang Choling we are providing these skills.

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.

Some of senior nuns at Gharoh are close to completing 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.

These successes and the enrichment of our monastic education and lives have been made possible due to the kind assistance of our supporters and friends.  We offer our sincere thanks and appreciation for your kindness. Our relationships with our supporters and friends have been very rich and rewarding.  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 give admission to new students every three years. Right now we have a long waiting list of about 60 nuns and some lay students for the year 2012. However, we do not have enough accommodation to meet the demand.  We also hope to raise funds for students' living quarters, a Retreat Building , fence -wall renovation , putting in a new well, and the extension of the library at Gharoh.  And most importantly, we are always in need of individual sponsors for our nuns. It is our sincere and genuine hope that you would able to provide us with some financial assistance. Your contribution would 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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