In the 1980s, the movie "Shaolin Temple" starring Jet Li became popular in the north and south of China and even in Asia, and the reputation of Shaolin Temple became famous overseas.
In the world's highest mountain range in the Himalayas, there is a little-known "Shaolin Temple". Everyone there will be kung fu, superb skills, but, where only nuns do not accept monks.
It is located in Kathmandu, Nepal, and is called Tenryu Maitreya Hill Bhikshuni Temple, which houses more than 800 nuns who practice martial arts.
Nepal is a small landlocked country surrounded by India on three sides and is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Although the country is not as vast, it is a very typical religious country with old-fashioned ideas.
It is unimaginable that in Nepal today there are still mixed marriages of "polygamy" and "polyandry" and the status of women is extremely low.
Men dominate both in the family and in society.
Many baby girls are aborted directly before they are even born. Even if they are lucky enough to be born, from the moment they are born, it means that they lose the right to choose their life, and their only use is to marry and have children and pass on the family name.
In everyday life, Nepali women not only serve their husbands and children, but are also the laborers of the entire family. They are the ones who do all the household chores and farm work in the fields during the busy season.
Even so, women are still not respected by their husbands and are often scolded and beaten and kicked at the slightest sign of disobedience.
The Nepalese women who live in this environment for a long time are living a miserable life, and their whole life is gray.
So, they thought of resistance.
However, the country's deeply rooted ideology of male superiority over women, how easy it is to change, they can only find a new way out: away from the world, cut off their hair to become a nun.
However, injustice is everywhere, and even after coming to the holy land of Buddhism, women in Nepal are still not respected and are treated differently on the path of practicing Buddhism.
While monks were allowed to eat and recite the Buddha's name and obtain the fruits of their practice, nuns were not. They were forbidden to pray or sing and could only do menial work such as sweeping the floor and cooking.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Convinced that women are not burdens, but equal practitioners, these nuns came to Tianlong Maitreya Mountain Bichuni Nunnery, a nunnery where there is no discrimination.
The nuns here have been running around for freedom and equality all year round.
Things were not so easy, not only were they opposed by many people, but some people even thought they were treacherous and came to the nunnery daily to harass and disrupt.
This time also became the darkest moment of their lives, not being recognized, being bullied, and having difficulty even maintaining a normal life.
It is always unusually dark before the dawn, but an opportunity to bring about a change in their fortunes.
In 2008, the abbot of Tien Loong Meitau Mountain Bichun Nunnery went out to visit Vietnam and found that all the nuns there were trained in fighting and had acquired martial arts, so that they could protect themselves and would not be bullied at all.
So she invited a kung fu master and 10 Vietnamese nuns to Nepal, hoping they would teach kung fu to their disciples.
The disciples were ecstatic to learn kung fu and were eager to try it out.
Led by Vietnamese nuns, the women wake up at 3 a.m. every day to meditate, chant and practice sutras, and then practice martial arts for three hours before eating breakfast.
From the basic skills of horse stance, to boxing, to swords, the hard work is self-evident, but none of them shouted bitterness and tiredness, all of them were quietly fighting.
Now, more than ten years later, they are all heroic, their eyes reveal the boldness and perseverance. Swords, swords, halberds, spears, nunchaku, everything is proficient.
No one dares to bully them anymore, and they are finally free to do what they like.
They have a dominant name - "Kung Fu Nuns", and the Tianlong Maitreya Mountain Bichuni Nunnery has become famous.
This is the only nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal, where you can practice martial arts, and more and more girls are coming here to join the team of "kung fu nuns".
The nunnery has gradually expanded from 20 people at the beginning to 800 people.
In addition to practicing martial arts, learning knowledge has also become their daily homework, making up for the fact that they have not read books.
Skills in daily life are not left behind, installing plumbing and electrical, gardening, laundry and cooking ......
Their lives have become colorful and they get together in their spare time to dance and sing, rehearse plays and play soccer ......
They became more independent, more confident, and defied the world by running hotels and coffee shops.
They lead the lives they want, but never forget their original intention - to help more suffering women and achieve gender equality as soon as possible.
Every year, the nuns of the Tenryu Maitreya Bikhuni Nunnery take some time off their monastic robes and put on cycling clothes to go on a month-long "cycling pilgrimage" from Kathmandu, all the way south to India.
Along the way, they passed through countless villages, stopping at each one to promote the idea of gender equality to the local female villagers, telling them the true story of human trafficking and the means of entrapment, so that they can raise their awareness of self-protection.
The "cycling pilgrimage" covers a distance of about 3,000 kilometers, and they have worked hard, year after year, but with little success.
In both Nepal and India, women have been raped, molested, lured and trafficked, but what's worse is that the victims are afraid to report it, and even when it is exposed, it is the women who are blamed and abused.
It is better to teach the girls to fish than to teach them to fish, and the "Kung Fu Nun" decided to teach them Kung Fu.
Once the news got out, it was so well received that hundreds of women came from Nepal to India, from their teens to their 30s.
The "Kung Fu Nuns" did not show mercy just because they were beginners. Like the nuns, they wake up at 3 a.m., put on horse stance, practice kung fu, first strengthen their body, and then learn how to deal with back attacks, as well as grappling and striking movements.
From here to go out of the woman, although can not be said to be highly skilled in martial arts, but more or less have two brushes, to deal with unexpected situations no problem.
Each year after that, hundreds of women came to study here, and in this way, more and more women were reborn.
In addition, "Kung Fu Nuns" have to carry out more than 600 kilometers of trekking activities every year. They walk along the Himalayas, picking up trash along the way and promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle to the villages along the way.
They are outside the earthly world, yet they care for the weak in the world all the time.
In 2015, a massive 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, shaking the ground and devastating the landscape in an instant.
Faced with the sudden disaster, many people were mercilessly crushed under the rubble before they could escape.
Fortunately, the "kung fu nuns" in the moment they felt the shaking, they quickly escape from the broken windows, no casualties, but the entire nunnery were turned into rubble.
After the incident, they did not have time to grieve, they quickly put into the post-disaster rescue, shuttle between the debris, help to clear the debris, take out the buried goods and unblock the road.
They also help rescue workers deliver supplies, carry the wounded and distribute food ...... As long as they can, they are always the first to step up.
They also delivered 3,000 tons of rice and 500 tons of milk to the affected villagers, and helped build 10,000 temporary shelters.
After the earthquake, the Nepalese people also began to look at the group of "kung fu nuns" differently and began to respect them.
This group of "kung fu nuns" came forward once again when the new crown epidemic broke out.
They walked to deliver supplies to the people in the mountains and educated them about the "power" of the new coronavirus, reminding them to take precautions and teaching them the proper prevention of the disease.
Through their efforts, they have changed their destiny and the world's stereotypes of women.
Today more and more people are joining the team, against all odds, but just like their name - "Jigme" (the fearless).
They live without fear of stereotypes and have the strength to stand up for themselves in this complicated world.
