Kung fu nuns showcase martial arts at Nepal monastery reopening after Covid-19 closure

These nuns, trained in self-defence, are part of the Drukpa lineage, which promotes gender equality and empowers women through physical and spiritual development

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The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery, put on the show of strength to mark the institution’s reopening, five years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors to the public. Photo: Facebook/Drukpa

Published: 7:19pm, 31 Dec 2024Updated: 5:30pm, 3 Jan 2025

About a dozen nuns performed hand chops and high kicks, some of them wielding swords, as they showed off their martial art skills to hundreds of cheering well-wishers at the long-awaited reopening of their nunnery in Nepal.

The nuns of the hilltop Druk Amitabha Monastery, put on the show of strength to mark the institution’s reopening, five years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors to the public.

The group of kung fu nuns, aged from 17 to 30, are members of the 1,000 year-old Drukpa lineage, which gives nuns equal status as monks and is the only female order in the patriarchal Buddhist monastic system.

Usually, nuns are expected to cook and clean and are not allowed to practise any form of martial art. But Gyalwang Drukpa, among the most senior figures in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, decided to train women in kung fu to improve their health and spiritual well-being.

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‘Kung Fu Nuns’ challenge gender inequality in patriarchal Buddhist system

He opened the nunnery in 2009, and it now has 300 members aged between six and 54.