(Image source from: First Generation Of Women Professors In Tibetan Tradition)

It was nearly three years back that Dalai Lama prescribed for the first time in the history to empower Buddhist nuns. This perfect prescription encouraged Buddhist nuns to take up doctorates in philosophy. Eventually, now the first batch of a total of 20 Buddhist nuns is ready to become ‘the first generation of women professors in the Tibetan tradition’.

As per the tradition, only the monks were awarded doctorates after a vigorous study in Buddhist philosophy for nearly 12 years or even more. According to the officials, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) made a historic decision in 2012, based on Dalai Lama’s advice, to establish the doctorate program for nuns.

Thubten Tsering, the joint secretary for CTA department of religion and culture, told IANS that, “His Holiness was quite impressed at the level of knowledge the nuns showed at a prayer festival in Dharamsala in March 2012. He strongly recommended that the nuns should also be included in the Geshe process.” Geshe is the equivalent of a philosophy doctorate.

According to Mr. Tsering the decision was taken at a representative meeting from six nunneries, the Tibetan Nuns Project, and the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. A regulation was also formulated at the meeting on the conferment of degrees to the nuns studying at Buddhist learning institutes and nunneries. A nun who completes 21 years of studies and who clears the final examination will be conferred with the doctorate degree.

A post on Tibetan Nuns Project quoting Wangmo said, “Getting this degree after years of intense study of philosophical texts has given the nuns new energy to study even harder. It’s the path that will lead us to work independently.” Wangmo escaped from Tibet and reached Dharamsala in 1990. It is the place where the Dalai Lama resides.About doctorate degree is known as ‘Geshe’ or ‘Geshema’

One studies five Buddhist texts over a 20 year-period to graduate with a doctorate degree. Logical analysis as well as debate is the major part of the study, along with regular prayer sessions and recitation. Geshe is the doctorate degree awarded to the monks and Geshema is awarded to the nuns.

A German national Kelsang Wangmo has become first woman to earn the Geshema degree and title in 2011. She spent a 21-year period for training in India. It was then that the Dalai Lama, who has long been a ‘women empowerment’ advocate, advised the Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies in Dharamsala for the presentation of the Geshema degree on the Western nun.

Tibetans revere the 80-year-old pontiff Dalai Lama as a living god and is the global face of the Tibetan exile movement. The pontiff lives in the northern Indian hill town along with nearly 140,000 Tibetans. More than 100,000 of them are in different parts of India.

-Sumana