The New Generation of Female Tibetan Buddhist Leaders

With 80 candidates studying for the new and highly demanding geshema degree, the Khachoe Ghakyil Ling nunnery (also known as Kopan), in Kathmandu, is emerging as an important center of learning for a new generation of female Tibetan Buddhist leaders in the Gelug tradition. The increased attention on nuns' education, including the geshema—Tibetan Buddhism's highest degree, which has historically been limited to monks as the geshe—represents a major step forward and a significant departure from a long history of male dominance.

In a sea of burgundy robes, under the spectacular golden gazes of the 1,000-armed Chenrezig [the bodhisattva of compassion] and the 21 Taras [a female buddha], I and five other Western pilgrims made a hand-to-hand donation to each of nearly 600 nuns assembled in Kopan nunnery's exquisite gompa, an assembly hall for devotion, celebration, and debate at the heart of the nunnery.