By Fritz Grohmann

Ten nuns and six monks, all Chinese and most ordained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, are part of the broader community of the Taipei FPMT center, Jinsui Farlin. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the abbot of the monks and nuns and of the center itself.

“Life is suffering.” What a statement! And the desperate reporter trying to elicit some comments on how it feels to be a Sangha member is left, shaken, with the question whether this summary conclusion should be put at all into Mandala. Wouldn’t it deter others from taking the brave step of becoming ordained?

Indeed, it’s not been easy for the young Taipei Sangha, and recent administrative arrangements only resulted in increased workload. But here they are, bent on making their lives as meaningful as possible. Actually, most of them have been doing this for years even before taking vows, and for everybody aware of the center’s history it was moving to see many of the most supportive old members donning robes as a group early last year.

Before that memorable event there had been sporadic ordinations of Taiwanese students but they happened in India or Nepal, and only two of these nuns are presently members of the Taipei Sangha community: Choeying Sangmo, who took vows from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, and Ven. Monica whom Rinpoche ordained after the 1994 Kopan November course. As karma dictated, the former is now manager of the Taipei center, the latter one of her two assistants and at the same time responsible for everything the local Maitreya Project branch publishes. No wonder they are busy, and this even the more so with Rinpoche’s extended stay.

While the present writer failed miserably to invite them to a harmless interview – “Not me, not me!” declared the venerable manager emphatically and hurried away – the other assistant, Ven. Emily, readily sat down in the gompa to share her experiences.

“I met Rinpoche in 1991,” she recalls. “I asked him one year later whether I could become a nun. Rinpoche suggested November to be a good time, yet out of certain considerations – there was no place for nuns in the Tibetan tradition to stay and I didn’t have enough savings – nothing happened then.” At least not in ordination terms, one might add, because Emily, an accountant by profession working in the most prestigious local medical school, helped at the center in manifold ways, especially taking meticulous care of the books, always cheerful and with a sound grasp of Dharma.

“I wanted to go to India and study Tibetan, but when I asked Rinpoche for his advice his reply was not in favor of doing this,” Ven. Emily says.“It was kind of disappointing but I stayed. Then Monica returned from Kopan, ordained, and it became increasingly clearer to me that this was really the way I wanted to go. Shortly afterwards, Rinpoche visited Taiwan and I tried once more to get Rinpoche’s approval but now the answer was shocking: a great disaster would befall me unless I would take vows soon!”

In retrospect, Ven. Emily laughs about this development but then it was a huge disappointment. “I wanted to be able to congratulate myself on having all the qualifications entitling me to join Sangha ranks, but now it looked as if I were ordaining just to run away from some terrible danger!” But when she took robes – and for the next few months – she was so happy that she could hardly believe her dream had come true. “The feeling reminded me of my experiencing taking the grueling general and higher examinations for government service. I never thought I would pass, and even after the results had been made public I would just think ‘Impossible, impossible!’ But actually it was a fact already.”

And after the ordination early 1995 given by Rinpoche, conducive conditions came together. “The center had bought its own place, we were living and working there as a group, and then I served as Geshe Donyo’s attendant and had the good fortune of listening to all his teachings including those he gave in Taichung and Kaohsiung.” Pausing for a moment, Ven. Emily sums up her experiences: “I’ve learnt a lot living in the Sangha community – including cooking!”

Among the nuns ordained together with Ven. Emily are Ven. Thubten Drolkar and Ven. Thubten Lekmon who, too, had been offering devoted service at the center for a number of years and are still working tirelessly in their quiet way to maintain the gompa like a pure land, always spotless and adorned by flowers. But the Taipei Sangha is by no means a “clique of old students.” Good humored Ven. Ch’uan-hui, most skillful in painting tsa-tsas, had hardly any contact with Rinpoche and was actually working at a Chinese Buddhist place in the States when she decided to take vows at the Taipei center together with the group. And the most recent additions to the community are Ven. Losang Thubten and Ven. Ch’an-song, one of whom, the only monk, is hailing from Hong Kong and received ordination about a year ago from Gen Lama Konchok in Kopan; he is, at the tender age of 14, already towering over all the nuns – while the other had been a bikkshuni ordained in the Chinese tradition for a number of years.

It has not been easy for the Sangha, and they have to work hard taking care of the center, devoting energies to the Maitreya Project, helping at the other Taiwanese centers, and following the tight teaching schedule compassionately arranged by resident Geshe Ngawang Drakpa. But everyone is blessed by their presence. It just makes a difference to join in activities at the center when there are so many awe-inspiring robes around.