Kung Fu nuns trek long and far to stop the trafficking of girls and women
NEW DELHI: Clad in black sweatpants, red jackets and white helmets, the hundreds of cyclists pedalling up treacherous mountain passes to India from Nepal could be mistaken for a Himalayan version of the Tour de France.
But this journey is tougher and they’re Buddhist nuns from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.
Five hundred nuns from the Drukpa Order are today completing a 4 000-km bicycle trek from Kathmandu to Leh in India to raise awareness about human trafficking.
“When we were doing relief work in Nepal, we heard how girls from poor families were being sold because their parents could not afford to keep them any more,” 22-year-old nun Jigme Konchok Lhamo said.
“We wanted to do something to change this attitude that girls are less than boys and that it’s okay to sell them,” she said.
She added that the bicycle trek shows “women have power and strength like men”.
In South Asia, many girls and women live with the threat of violence and without many basic rights although growing awareness, better laws and economic empowerment are bringing about a slow change in attitudes.
The bicycle trek, from Nepal into India, is the fourth such journey the nuns have made, meeting local residents, officials and religious leaders to spread messages of gender equality, peaceful co-existence and respect for the environment. They also distribute food.
They’re dubbed the “Kung Fu nuns” due to their training in martial arts. Led by the Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa Order, the nuns raise eyebrows for their unorthodox activities as traditionally Buddhist nuns are treated very differently from monks.
“They cook and clean and are not allowed to exercise.
“But his Holiness thought this was nonsense and decided to buck the trend,” said Carrie Lee, president of Live to Love International, a charity which works with the Drukpa nuns to support marginalised Hima- layan communities www. livetolove.org/).
Gyalwang Drukpa was inspired by his mother to become an advocate for gender equality.
“Praying is not enough,” said Jigme Konchok Lhamo.
“His Holiness teaches us that we have to go out and act on the words that we pray. Actions speak louder than words,” she said. – Thomson Reuters Foundation (http://