Nagi Gompa, nestled high in the Himalayan foothills above the Kathmandu Valley, is home to over 150 nuns from all over the region, who devote their lives to study, practice, and meditation.
Previously, every nun at Nagi Gompa could request to do a three-year retreat, a historically rarer opportunity when compared to their male counterparts.
Three-year retreats are a centuries-old practice in which Tibetan Buddhists fully isolate themselves in order to pursue one-pointedly the realization of the Buddha’s teachings. At Nagi Gompa, an unusually large number of nuns (fully two thirds of them) have completed the traditional three-year retreat, some more than once, and hold the title of “Retreat Lama.” They emerge from this practice with extraordinary qualities of insight and compassion and are able to benefit others through teaching, serving, and offering counsel on the spiritual path. In this way, they are beacons of wisdom and compassion for the world.
That all changed in April 2015 when a devastating earthquake struck Nepal, leaving the three-year retreat facility and many other buildings at Nagi Gompa uninhabitable. A retreat that was planned for the coming spring had to be put on hold while the nunnery rebuilt its facilities.
To date, a new three-year retreat facility for twenty nuns has been designed. With your help, a new group of nuns, the first in five years, will be able to enter into a three-year retreat and give rise to the realization of the Buddha’s teachings.
Joining together to support the completion of this essential project creates an inexhaustible, ever-increasing wealth of merit which can be dedicated to the benefit of all beings.
We hope that you will join us in this virtuous project.