Seven Weeks in Tibet:
A Summer in Nangchen with Lama Norlha Rinpoche
The first monastic college for women in Tibet
The next day it was on to
Kala Rongo, the women’s monastery Rinpoche
founded in 1990. Our jeeps followed a procession of nuns playing
conches, drums and jalings as they led us along the windy cliffside
pass to the shrine room, where Rinpoche again received katas and
offered blessings to the nuns and local villagers. We visited the
shedra (monastic college), where since 2001, forty nuns a year are
being given unprecedented opportunities to continue their Dharma
studies following three-year retreat. The nuns wept as Rinpoche
spoke with them, overwhelmed by his return and his kindness to them.
We toured the construction site of the new three-year retreat, and
spoke with many nuns diligently building what they hoped would be
their home for the next three years (more than 80 nuns have expressed interest in entering the next retreat, though there will
be room for only 45). And we visited the
medical clinic, its walls
lined with bags of herbs and cabinets of tinctures. During our
visit, it was also serving as temporary housing for the construction workers,
but eventually it will be a central location for medical treatment
and teaching for the nuns and the surrounding community, in an area
where there has been no access to medical treatment for decades.
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