Read about the historic background of the nuns community; and how the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism is preserved there.

Kopan Nunnery was founded twenty-nine years ago, born from Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche inspiration and guidance.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, founders of Kopan Monastery in the Kathmandu Valley, admitted the first nuns to live and study there in 1979. The Nunnery is currently the largest Tibetan nunnery in Nepal with 400 nuns. The Nunnery was named Khacho Ghakyil Ling, the Land of the Sky goers.The new nunnery was opened in 1994 with a grand ceremony and given the auspicious name of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling – Pure Land of Bliss.  One hundred and twenty five nuns were then able to moved to the their new home.  Since then the Nunnery has grown at a rapid pace and is now home to around 400 nuns, aged between 9 – 70 years old. To accommodate all the nuns, more buildings have been added over the years.

The nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery have had the doors of the classical Buddhist education opened to them. They are provided with highly trained scholars to teach them, and are now instructed in classical Tibetan debate, the performance of ritual music, the creation of sand mandalas, and other ritual arts Khachoe Ghakyil has established a geshe study program (the geshe degree is the monastic equivalent of a Doctor of Divinity) with the prospect of obtaining a geshe degree - one of only few nunneries in India and Nepal to offer such an opportunity for nuns.