Kung Fu Nuns

Their name comes from the order’s proficiency in Chinese martial arts, which they began learning in 2008 after the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa authorised training for them despite centuries-old Buddhist laws banning exercise for nuns.

The sisters repaired solar panels, laid new tiles in the front yard, and rebuilt their broken compound wall while still traveling to remote sites to help villagers recover.

[6] The order now has about 800 sisters,[7] ranging in age from 8-80,[3] in four nunneries: The Drukpa nuns are community activists, promoting gender equality, environmental sustainability, and intercultural tolerance in their home villages in the Himalayas, where women’s access to educational and economic opportunities are some of the lowest in the world.

Over 200 nuns serve as volunteer water quality monitors, part of a larger network of Waterkeeper organizations and affiliates that seek to spread awareness about the importance of the Himalayan Glacier and its rivers.

[12] The sisters form a significant part of the spiritual entourage of the Gyalwang Drukpa, who leads annual “Eco Pad Yatras” – holy pilgrimages that also allow the nuns and other walkers to clean up toxic waste and dangerous plastic litter that is polluting fresh water in the Himalayan villages.

[15][16] The Kung Fu Nuns gained international attention in 2016 when they completed a 5000-kilometer round trip bicycle journey – called a yatra ("pilgrimage") – through the Himalayas from Kathmandu, Nepal to Ladakh.

In each village, they stopped to lead prayer, discuss the importance of environmental sustainability, and promote women’s empowerment in the wake of a 15% increase in human trafficking cases following the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.

[19][20] In 2017, the Kung Fu Nuns were invited to speak and perform at the Reuters Trust Conference, where they demonstrated their work and spoke about their efforts to achieve gender equality in their home region.