Tibetan Nuns to Attain Geshema
Degree
Buddhistdoor International Naushin Ahmed
2015-05-13
Over the past 12 days, 38 Tibetan nuns have sat
examinations which will allow them to progress towards a Geshema
degree, a high-level monastic certification similar to a
doctorate.
Taking four years to complete, the Geshema
examination has been held each May only since 2013—until 2011, the
Geshe title was awarded only to monks. The degree requires about 18
years of study, and is the highest form of training in the Gelugpa
school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The first woman ever to receive the Geshema title,
in 2011, was German nun Kelsang Wangmo, after 21 years in India,
where she was ordained in the early 1990s. Venerable
Kunphen, spiritual program coordinator at Tushita Meditation Centre
in Dharamsala, told Mandala magazinein 2012: “It has been
a great pleasure to see that Ven. Kelsang Wangmo has been awarded
with the Geshe degree and I hope that many nuns, some having
finished their study for years already, will follow very soon. It’s
quite a big step, which will heighten the esteem and value
nuns are given considerably.”
Four years later, 38 nuns are successfully moving towards the
completion of their degrees. Eleven are in their first year of
study, six are in their second, and twenty-one nuns are in their
third year.
The examinations this year were held from
1–12 May at Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Mundgod,
southern India. The next round will be held in 2016 at Geden
Choeling Nunnery in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
The examinations include written tests on important
Buddhist texts, as well as debate. Optional subjects include
Tibetan language, Tibetan history, and modern science. If the nuns
pass in these subjects, their additional marks are added to the
total score.
Four Geshe Lharamapas (Lharampa being
the highest category of the Geshe degree, awarded according to
ability) are invited from Sera Jhe, Sera Mey, Gaden Shartse, and
Drepung Gomang monasteriesto evaluate the debates, while
invigilation of the written tests is conducted by one Geshe
Lharampa from Gaden Jangtse monastery.
The initiative to allow nuns to complete the
examinations and be awarded the coveted Geshema title was taken in
2012 by nine interested groups: The Department of
Religion and Culture of the Central Tibetan Administration, the
Tibetan Nuns Project, the Institute of Buddhist
Dialectics-Dharamshala, and six nunneries in India and Nepal. These
groups make up the Geshema Examination Board, which regularizes and
oversees all the examinations for the nuns.
Geshe Wangmo advises young female scholars: “One should not regard
Buddhist study as being separate from spiritual practice, but as an
integral part of it” (Mandala).
Possession of the Geshema degree will enable the nuns to take up
leadership roles in the monastic and lay communities that were
previously reserved for males.