A new era

Lama, was for centuries open only to men. In 2012, the degree was finally made available to nuns.

- Swati Chawla

The first batch of 20 geshemas graduated in 2016; as of December 2024, there were 73 geshemas. Studying for the four-year-long geshe degree requires almost two decades of prior monastic training, and very few nuns had managed that until recently.

A WIDE INFLUENCE

It is rightly and well acknowledged that no country has done more for Tibetans in exile than India. Just as true, but less often said, is how deeply India—particularly the Himalayan region—has been shaped by the moral presence, public service, and quotidian love of its Tibetan guests.

Delek Wangmo notes that about 100 nuns in Dolma Ling are from the Himalayan belt in India. The TNP also supports many nuns and nunneries in Kinnaur, Spiti and Ladakh. For instance, the TNP provided textbooks and a school bus for the 700-year-old Dorjee Zong Nunnery in Zanskar, enabling students to make the 12-mile journey from the nunnery—where classes once ended at class V—to a government school offering education up to class X.

Six nuns from Dorjee Zong studied in Dharamsala for years, and three of them have returned to help revive it. Many geshemas now serve as teachers and administrators in under-resourced schools and nunneries across the Indian Himalaya, continuing to strengthen local communities.