Public Story
THE KUNG FU NUNS OF THE HIMALAYAS
Summary
The Kung Fu Nuns are part of an 800-year-old Buddhist sect named Drukpa, the Tibetan word for dragon. Besides practicing Kung Fu and meditation, Drukpa nuns teach young females from the Himalayan region self-defense in workshops, lead prayers, and journey by bicycle for thousands of kilometers through the Himalayas on their yearly Cycle Yatra to highlight environmental causes, and educate people in the rural parts of Nepal and India about climate change and the importance of girls.
(2019 - work in progress)
Shattering conventions through a mixture of martial arts, meditation, and environmental activism.
The Kung Fu Nuns are part of an 800-year-old Buddhist sect named Drukpa, the Tibetan word for dragon. Besides practicing Kung Fu and meditation, Drukpa nuns teach young females from the Himalayan region self-defense in workshops, lead prayers, and journey by bicycle for thousands of kilometers through the Himalayas on their yearly Cycle Yatra to highlight environmental causes, and educate people in the rural parts of Nepal and India about climate change and the importance of women. The Drukpa lineage is the only Buddhist order in which nuns have the same rights as monks.
“We learn Kung Fu to bring the girls up, to lift them up, our motivation is to lift up the women, to empower females.”, said Jigme Migyur Palmo, 28, one of nine Kung Fu Nuns teaching at the self-defense workshops. Tsering Youdon, 14, a student at the workshop in Ladakh, Northern India in 2019 said “The boys in my class beat girls. I used to be scared of them. But now I will fight back! I will inspire my friends to come to the next workshop. I improved myself a lot it is such a good experience. I am interested in learning more Kung Fu. The nuns are my role models, my idols.”
This long-term project was published in GEO magazine in October 2023 and is realised with support of the VG Bild-Kunst Grant.
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