Ganden Choeling Nunnery or Geden Chöling () is a Tibetan Buddhist vihara for

Buddhist nuns Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India North India is a loosely defined region ...

in Dharamshala,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is near the monastery in which the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

resides. The Gaden Choeling Nunnery was started by nuns who fled from Nechung Ri vihara () in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

, which was destroyed during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. It is the largest and oldest Tibetan nunnery in India. Since most of the nunneries in Tibet are no longer operational, it may be the largest in the world. Gaden Chöling is built on a steep hillside in Dharamsala. The nunnery is only a ten-minute walk from the main temple in

McLeod Ganj McLeod Ganj, also spelt McLeodganj, (pronounced ''Mc-loud-gunj'') is a suburb of Dharamshala in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is known as "Little Lhasa" or "Dhasa" (a short form of Dharamshala used mainly by Tibetans) because ...

. There are 160 nuns in residence.

Gaden Choeling Nunnery in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Another nunnery with the same name is located in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (originally

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...

). Ten bhikṣunis from this monastery were initially involved in the

2008 Tibetan unrest 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

Notable nuns

* Passang Lhamo

References

External links

Flickr images
* {{coord, 32.236, 76.326, display=title Buddhist nunneries Buildings and structures in Dharamshala Buddhist monasteries in Himachal Pradesh Tibetan diaspora in India