Visiting Nuns Rally Support for Free Tibet

Seven Tibetan nuns from the Keydong Thuk-che-cho-ling Nunnery in Nepal visited Harvard on Friday for a combination of cultural and political events hosted by Students for a Free Tibet and the Divinity School's Buddhist Community.

The first formal delegation of Tibetan Buddhist nuns to visit North America, the group held a sand mandala demonstration and a Long Life Dakini dance honoring the Dalai Lama at the Divinity School, followed by prayers.

The nuns' sand mandala demonstration was a hands-on event which served as much to rally support from the 70-odd audience members for Tibet as to teach sand mandala techniques. At the end, half the audience showed solidarity with the nuns by closing their eyes in prayer.

John E. Robinson, an audience member, prostrated himself on the ground in prayer.

"I was so moved by the nuns...I had to express my solidarity with these people in their plight," Robinson said later.

The nuns' activism brings to light both Tibetan rights issues and, ironically, how Tibetan life in exile have led to the loosening of Tibetan traditions, allowing the Tibetan women greater roles in religion and politics formerly dominated by Tibetan men.

Traditionally, making sand mandalas--representations in sand of the house of Buddha, whose dismantling symbolizes the impermanence of life--one of the higher practices of Buddhism, was a domain limited to monks.

According to Melissa R. Kerin, a second-year Divinity School student who helped organize the nuns' tour, the fact that the nuns are learning to make the mandalas is a sign of social change.

Reluctant to phrase the changes in Western feminist terms of release from sexual discrimination, however, Kerin said the reasons why nuns have not created sand mandalas in the past are "very complex."

According to Kerin, nuns have been barred from creating sand mandalas for reasons ranging from educational limitations to the fact that Tibetan men and women had "different spheres."

"[In the past] nunneries weren't oriented toward studying the scripture, but more toward practice [of religion]...[but] it was never actually written in scriptures that [nuns] can't make sand mandalas," Kerin said.

Life in exile, which has uprooted traditional sex roles, increased exposure to Western Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama's support has opened a "space of possibility," Kerin said. The nuns created their first sand mandala in 1994.

As for the nun Ani Tendol, the transla- tor of the group--and, at 27, one of the oldernuns--she said she takes the changes at hernunnery in stride.

"It's very nice, because now we get a goodeducation," Tendol said simply.

The nuns finished the day by leading the chantsat a candlelight vigil in front of Au Bon Pain inHolyoke Center to show support for six Tibetanswho started a hunger strike in New Delhi on March10, the Tibetan National Uprising Day.

The hunger strikers have demanded that theUnited Nations open a debate on the status ofTibet and investigate human rights violations inTibet. Organizers say the strikers are near death.

The vigil drew about 80 candleholders, some ofwhom were fasting for 24 hours in support of thehunger strikers, as well as numerous curiousonlookers. The vigil lasted about an hour in thechilly wind.

In the coming weeks, the nuns will be preparinga sand mandala demonstration for the Dalai Lama'supcoming visit to Brandeis University, on May 8.

The nuns, who arrived in the United Sates onFebruary 8 and have spent the last couple ofmonths touring colleges to discuss their ritualtechniques and spiritual art, will return to Nepalin mid-May

"It's very nice, because now we get a goodeducation," Tendol said simply.

The nuns finished the day by leading the chantsat a candlelight vigil in front of Au Bon Pain inHolyoke Center to show support for six Tibetanswho started a hunger strike in New Delhi on March10, the Tibetan National Uprising Day.

The hunger strikers have demanded that theUnited Nations open a debate on the status ofTibet and investigate human rights violations inTibet. Organizers say the strikers are near death.

The vigil drew about 80 candleholders, some ofwhom were fasting for 24 hours in support of thehunger strikers, as well as numerous curiousonlookers. The vigil lasted about an hour in thechilly wind.

In the coming weeks, the nuns will be preparinga sand mandala demonstration for the Dalai Lama'supcoming visit to Brandeis University, on May 8.

The nuns, who arrived in the United Sates onFebruary 8 and have spent the last couple ofmonths touring colleges to discuss their ritualtechniques and spiritual art, will return to Nepalin mid-May