Nestled in the rugged hills south of Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, in a secluded area known as Sissinang, Shechen Orgyen Chozong Nunnery is one of the few facilities in Bhutan where women can study and practice. This small nunnery was the first monastic center built by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche after he left Tibet. He gave numerous important teachings there and its beautiful temple frescoes are painted according to his instructions.

At present one hundred nuns, mainly Bhutanese and ranging in age from 15 to 70 years old, live and study at the nunnery under the guidance of Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche.

The nunnery offers women the rare opportunity to study and train in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. It provides for the nuns’ complete education in addition to covering all expenses for their food, medical care, shelter, and clothing. Eleven of the nuns have taken Bhiksuni ordination and were the first group of nuns from the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism to receive this full ordination.

In 1998, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche and Khandro Lhamo, (1913-2003) the wife of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, began the process of improving and expanding the nunnery’s facilities. There is now a modern kitchen and dining room, a library, an office, new living quarters for the nuns and resident teachers, and a wing for elderly nuns. a new building for classrooms and further accommodations has just been built.

In 2007 a small retreat center was built on the hill above the nunnery at the request of the nuns. Presently nine nuns are engaged in a strict three-year retreat at the newly build center. Their meditation practice is the termas (rediscovered teachings) of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Two graduates from Shechen Philosophical College teach extensive courses of meditation and study, including reading and writing for the younger girls, and a nine-year shedra (college)  course. This training equips the nuns to eventually return to their communities to teach and create further opportunities for women and to also teach at the nunnery.

Four nuns have recently gone to the Barefoot College in India to study solar engineering. In 2012 they will install solar electric systems in Shechen’s Nepal retreat center and in their nunnery in Bhutan.

The flourishing of Shechen Orgyen Chozong as a place for education for women is a revolutionary step in the establishment of equality for women practitioners in the East. There is a long waiting list of women wanting to join the nunnery.

Your help is needed to give women of all ages an opportunity to study and teach and keep alive the wisdom tradition of Tibet for the next generations.

Our sponsorship program directly supports the nuns in their education and practice.