Lough and Pray

"If you want a lama in the family, let your son become a monk," advises a Tibetan proverb, "if you need a maid, make your daughter a nun." For Bhuti, Dölma, Sonam, Dölka and the other "little nuns", such proverbs are no longer relevant. They came to Yangchen Chöling not to become maids, but to get a better education than in the schools of their home villages.


Christl Finkenstedt accompanied a trip of the Spiti-Help association to the Yangchen Chöling monastery. There in the north of India, near the Tibetan border, in the Spiti Valley, 35 Buddhist nuns live at an altitude of 3,900 metres.


Praying and laughing - in this personal account of her experiences, the author provides insights into the history and present of Tibetan women's monasteries and guides us through the nuns' daily lives.


The net proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the nuns and the population in the Spiti Valley via Spiti-Help association (www.spiti-help.org).