In recent years, growing numbers of Buddhist nuns from Tibet have sought asylum in the Tibetan exile communities of India. Chinese policies have crippled the monasteries and nunneries and barred access to both traditional and modern education. In reaction, the nuns have become more and more involved in acts of resistance. By the time they reach India, many have survived torture and imprisonment. Most of the nuns who escape Tibet are young, between the ages of 15 and 25.
What draws these young women to take religious vows and in so doing to set themselves in opposition to the governing powers? A hunger for learning is a common theme. Their determination to seek Buddhist teachings is an expression of their spiritual commitment, but also a response to the exclusion of Tibetans from opportunities in their own homeland. Young women from urban areas are acutely aware of the discrimination they face from official policies encouraging the immigration of ethnic Chinese into Tibet. They know there is little hope of schooling, even for the brightest, without paying large bribes and denying their own language and culture. Committing to a nun's life becomes an affirmation of her own culture, which is interwoven with the values and institutions of Buddhism.
Few of the nunneries that were demolished during the Cultural Revolution have been restored, so many nuns live and practice independently, in villages and remote areas, without the support of a religious community or access to teachers.
Those fortunate enought to join a nunnery find little there to nourish their aspirations. The disruptions of the Cultural Revolution and its after-effects have broken the continuity of the tradition: only as recently as the 1980's were new nuns allowed to join, and very few of the elders have survived to teach. Days are spent in hard physical labor, cleaning up the debris and descrations, and reconstructing buildings. There is little time for study and religious practice. Political education is imposed by Chinese officers assigned to each nunnery, and there is a climate of hostility and fear of informers. Expulsion is a constant threat.
The demonstrations that have flared in Lhasa over the last few years, in which the nuns have played an increasingly central role, are born of frustration and indignity suffered daily, as well as the larger hopes for Tibetan independance. The demonstrations are far from the grand scale of Tienamen Square, but instead take the form of desperate small gestures of defiance. They are more spontaneous than organized, and constrained as much by the nuns own commitment to nonviolence as by the fearsome intimidation of the Chinese military presence. A nun will step onto a box in the marketplace and pull out a Tibetan flag from her robes and shout "Free Tibet" in the central Lhasa marketplace.
They measure their success in terms of how many rounds they can complete before being arrested, because arrest is inevitable. The nuns perform these actions in full knowledge of what awaits them, a knowledge that transforms these small and seemingly futile gestures into acts of profound courage and determination. Prison sentences can be anywhere from six months to three years. The interrogators demand the names of ring-leaders, but few of the nuns talk, because there are none. It is a movement without organization, a spontaneity fired by desperation and the certainty that there is nothing left to lose.
For these women, their spiritual and political commitment is inseparable. "Aspiring for liberation and fighting for freedom are not different in practice," they say. By renouncing family ties and worldly concerns, their vows give them the freedom to focus on this struggle. And because of the harsh consequences they face, their faith and independance of spirit are essential to their survival.
After imprisonment or expulsion from the nunnery, nuns remain under house arrest. They are forbidden to join in community events, and are fined heavily for any external sign of religious practice. Denied ration cards and the permits necessary to earn a living, they become a burden to their families and isolated from the community. So many choose the ardous journey to India, drawn by the protection of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in exile.
Refugee nuns in India still face an uphill struggle to fulfill their aspirations of spiritual practice and education.
The Tibetan Nuns Project is committed to meeting these needs
