Swe Nunnery, Tibet: Living Together At The Top Of The World

CHINA | Tuesday, 8 January 2013 | Views [246] | View Smaller Image

At the end of a long day, a nun lights a candle before going to bed. Although nuns are generally an under-funded and overlooked population in Buddhist monasticism, what they lack in monetary wealth, they more than make up for with a rich and vibrant community life and spiritual practice.

Nuns gather joyfully outside of the du-khong, or main meditation hall, before mid-day prayer. Without access to the same funding as their male counterparts, the nuns were forced to build the meditation hall entirely by themselves over a period of three years. They recall it as one would a dream, still unsure of how they managed the incredible feat of carrying the wooden planks up the mountain, mixing the materials together, and constructing the building.

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Swe Nunnery, Tibet: Living Together At The Top Of The World

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