The Dancing Nuns of Kopan – Video Stream or Download

Description

This documentary was a labor of love; filmed, assembled, edited and narrated by Anahata Iradah in 1999.

When Lama Lhundruup asked Anahata and Prema to teach the nuns of Kopan the Mandala Dance of the 21 Praises of Tara, they realized that they would need to raise funds in order to provide training and costumes, so this documentary was, in part, a fund raising gesture.

The Kopan Nuns worked for 6 years with Prema and Anahata. Although the dance did not become a tradition of their nunnery as we had hoped, it did give the nuns a great deal of confidence, and they did modify the dance and present it on their tours.

Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa and Lama Lhundrup were determined to offer their nuns all the opportunities that were previously restricted to monks. Nuns were the most impoverished of the Tibetan culture. Having no education, they were literally servants.

Because of the vigorous education of western women, when the dharma was offered to the West, western women protested the misogynous undercurrent in the culture. The High Lamas were receptive, and now, almost every monastery has a sister nunnery, where the nuns are trained in the same texts and rituals.

One of the ways monasteries have been raising money since the Chinese invasion sent over 100,000 Tibetans into exile, has been tours and performances of “Cham,” the sacred dance of the monks.

It was decided that a group of the nuns of Kopan should also be prepared to tour and raise money for their nunnery.

The nuns had already started on a rigorous regime of study and had learned to play the musical instruments in all the rituals of practice. They were taught to read and understand the profound texts of the monastery’s transmission and were taught the art of debate.

Another method of raising funds during the tours, was the sponsorship of sand mandalas. The Kopan nuns were taught to create the sand mandala of the Medicine Buddha, Sangye Menla.

Anahata was able to get footage of the first group of traveling, dancing nuns to include in this documentary. Here you will see the nuns dancing, debating, and conducting the life rituals of Tibetan Buddhism

Included in this documentary are some luscious images of the Boudhanath Stupa and the life of the Tibetans, who live in the area.

You can also find some wonderful footage of the 1998 pilgrimage of dancing Taras in Kathmandu.