Jigme Karuna Yangchen, of the Kung Fu Nuns of the Himalayas, on how creative problem-solving often lies in the hands of female youth

Juleh! On behalf of my 700 fellow Drukpa Kung Fu Nuns, I hope to bring the female voices hidden in the high mountains far away…

Why Kung Fu?

Most people think that Buddhism is a religion but for us, Buddhism is a philosophy of life. It is a way of living positively. We have a lot to learn and experience in our life. Our daily schedule in our nunnery is filled with chanting of mantras and sadhanas, learning spiritual texts and ritual instruments, and practising yoga. All this prepares us to be spiritually stronger to serve others with compassion, love and kindness.

So many people have asked us, ‘You are nuns and sanyasis, aren’t you supposed to stay peacefully in your ashrams, practicing meditation and doing Pooja for your deities? Why are you learning Kung Fu?’ Let me share with you the reason why we embraced Kung Fu in our lives. There was a time when we were facing many adverse and dangerous situations. Whenever we went out on our walking pilgrimage, whenever we had meditation in the forest, and whenever we visited holy places, we were teased and bullied by men. We were very scared and we did not know what to do. We had no solution and we had no confidence; we felt hopeless. Our guruji, His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa decided to include Kung Fu in our daily learning. Kung Fu experts from Vietnam were invited to teach us self-defence. For 9 years we have been learning and practicing Kung Fu and recently we have been training young girls in the Himalayas in the art of Kung Fu.

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The main reason we became nuns or sanyasis is because we want to live a life not for ourselves but for the sake of others, for the happiness of others. But if we are not strong, if we are weak, how can we help others? Then our renunciation makes no sense! We need the power, we need the self-confidence to be able to go out and help others – and Kung Fu gave us that. It is a great solution. Without needing to give up meditation, ritual practice, yoga and study of philosophy, Kung Fu is the additional learning that we have provided to enable us to go out and share our spiritual knowledge and understanding with everyone.

Confidence in Service

Knowing Kung Fu has helped us in many ways. It has not only helped us to develop physical strength, but we also build up mental strength and spiritual concentration. We have become more active physically and more confident in doing everything that we do, especially when we are needed to help and benefit others. During the earthquake in Nepal in 2015 we travelled to the most affected and the most remote areas, to help those in need. We carried supplies and medicines in our bags. Wherever we went, we offered moral support and prayers for the victims. We divided ourselves into five groups, visited 29 districts in Nepal, distributing 3000 tonnes of rice, milk powder, tents, clothes, food, blankets and so on. It was because of our Kung Fu training that we had no fear during the earthquake and the aftershocks. We refused to be evacuated because we should not run away from those who need help.

The Kung Fu training supported our meditation, which in turn supported our cultivation of compassion. Because our physical power developed from Kung Fu training, we were helped and we were able to help each other and everyone in need. Without having power, how can we help people? We would not be able to put our compassion, our loving kindness into practice. We need the power to go into society, to the disaster areas, to help others. And this is our life-long commitment.

We also go to different parts of the Himalayas to do different humanitarian works. We visit different communities to educate them through action because we realise that nothing is better than education in action. Why? Because when people see visually that we are doing something good, they get inspired by our actions. We human love to copy – we copy fashion, we copy bad things, we copy violence. Why can’t we copy a positive power, a positive action? We should all join together to rise up and help each other because the world doesn’t belong only to you or to me – it belongs to all of us! You cannot change the world alone and nor can I. But if we all come together, we will be able to bring some positive change.

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Our guruji, the Gyalwang Drukpa repeatedly teaches that we need to live a righteous life. We need to live a life that benefits others, that inspires others by becoming a positive example to everyone.

Helping Hands

We have cycled 10,000 kilometres from Nepal to India and in different areas in India, through the dangerous terrain in the Himalayas, and dangerous areas in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to raise awareness about human trafficking, promote gender equality, and encourage eco-friendly ways of living. Wherever we cycled, we spoke to the girls and women, trying our best to encourage them by showing that if the nuns can do it, they can do it too. We have completed 7,000 km of padyatra in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, promoting peace, gender equality and spreading positivity. We have collected 20 tonnes of non-biodegradable garbage during our bicycle yatras and padyatras. We have been involved in animal rescue. As you know, stray dogs are a huge menace in India. We work on compassionate solutions without harming life, such as sterilisation, adoption of dogs, and education of humans. We also work with the local community to nurture sick animals.

We would like to share with others the little compassion, wisdom and power that we have learnt from our guru. We realise that the more we share, the stronger, wiser and more compassionate we become. Experiential knowledge empowers us much more than anything we have learnt. We need the support and participation of all of you in our activities. This would be a huge encouragement to us. We welcome you to visit our ashrams in Kathmandu and Ladakh. We would like to help by conducting self-defence workshops for your girls at your schools. Just for your knowledge, 20 of my colleagues are presently in Ladakh conducting a 5-day self-defence workshop for more than 100 young girls. So please reach out to us, we can be a part of your solutions.

This story appeared in the September 2017 issue of ScooNews magazine.

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