Daughters of Dolma (2015) Adam Miklos,

Daughters of Dolma takes you on a journey revealing a distinctively female experience of Tibetan Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley. This feature-length documentary will bring to the screen not just Buddhist spirituality and qualities like compassion and kindness, but Tibetan Buddhist nuns as full individuals beyond their monastic vows and religious practices. Daughters of Dolma aims to reveal how gender and modernity are moulding contemporary spiritual practices in Nepal… With the nuns of Karma Ngoedhon Osal Choekhorling, we delved into the topics of female monastics, modernity and gender issues. The team asked nuns from different age groups about the choice of becoming a nun and its repercussions, the idea of “gender equality” in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and the role of modern technologies in their spiritual lives. To enrich our insights on monasticism and spirituality, we also met with and interviewed some of the nuns’ parents and close relatives. We captured more sweet peculiarities among the nuns of Karma Samte Ling Nunnery. This rather secluded nunnery provides the young nuns with a fusion of curricula consisting of Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Tibetan, Nepali and English. Alongside academia, the nuns are disciplined enough to hold morning and afternoon prayer ceremonies in their prayer hall, clean the premises and also exude their artistic skills through sketches and paintings. These nuns captivated our hearts with their diligence, responsibility and creativity. These two distinctly different nunneries allowed us to film a unique perspective of Tibetan Buddhist monasticism as a particularly female vocation.