Gaden Choeling Nunnery

Tibetan Buddhist vihara

Ganden Choeling Nunnery or Geden Chöling (Wylie: dga' ldan chos gling dgon pa) is a Tibetan Buddhist vihara for Buddhist nuns in Dharamshala, India. It is near the monastery in which the 14th Dalai Lama resides.

The Gaden Choeling Nunnery was started by nuns who fled from Nechung Ri vihara (Wylie: ne phyung ri) in Tibet, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.[1] 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.[2]

Gaden Chöling is built on a steep hillside in Dharamsala.[3] The nunnery is only a ten-minute walk from the main temple in McLeod Ganj. There are 160 nuns in residence.[4]

## Gaden Choeling Nunnery in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

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Another nunnery with the same name is located in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (originally Kham, Tibet). Ten bhikṣunis from this monastery were initially involved in the 2008 Tibetan unrest.[5]

## Notable nuns

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* Passang Lhamo

## References

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1. ^ "Geden Choeling". Tibetan Nuns Project. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
2. ^ Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo. "A Brief Glimpse at Tibetan Refugee Nunneries". Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, Bulletin 32, May 1988. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
3. ^ Peter Gold (1988). Tibetan pilgrimage. Snow Lion Publications. p. 67\. ISBN 0-937938-52-1. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
4. ^ "Welcome to Geden Choeling Nunnery". Geden Choeling Buddhist Educational Society. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
5. ^ "TWA condemns the wave of arrests of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Tibet". Tibetan Women's Association. May 2008. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2008.

## External links

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* Flickr images
* "Geden Choeling Nunnery Album". Picasa. Retrieved 17 November 2010.[permanent dead link]

32°14′10″N 76°19′34″E﻿ / ﻿32.236°N 76.326°E﻿ / 32.236; 76.326