Distributing warmth at Buddhist nunneries
We share the following story from our team leader, which he reports on from his travels of delivering aid as part of our Better Burma mission.
When I was traveling two weeks ago, we saw a group of 20-30 young nuns who were going alms round on a Pre-Sabbath Day. I took them to their nunnery as my donation of transportation. Winter has come to Myanmar and the weather is getting quite colder this month, and I spoke to a few of the nuns, I learned that blankets are a very urgent need for them in these colder days.
Myanmar's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology issued a weather forecast about the Condition of El Nino during December 2023 to February 2024, that we will be colder than normal, and we have found this has been true so far. So we made a plan to help some young nuns in a mountainous area by providing blankets.
As it is a new nunnery and located in the outskirts of the village, there are only a few donors who help them with their needs. It's a pariyatti nunnery and I loved the scripts carved in the archway of the nunnery, which reads: "Studying Pariyatti is Meeting the Lord Buddha."
I saw some State's honours and awards (certificates of completion of monastic higher courses such as Dhammācariya) that all the five head nuns achieved. One of them achieved the first prize nationally in the monastic higher education examination (completion of Vinaya Vidhu, the “Basket of Monastic Disciplines”) and the other four completed the same course examination with excellence.
Surprisingly, the most outstanding young head nun there is originally from a village only one mile from my hometown. Her village, which is located on the highway, recently burned down; her sister, another outstanding nun, passed away last year from cancer. It's both tragic and surprising that these outstanding nuns have not been offered sufficient help by the government.
The younger nuns from this nunnery are from the north of Monywa where there have been a lot of armed encounters between the military and local defense forces. This increased number of resident nuns here, including young kids, at the beginning of the Rain Retreat. The monk at the monastery who is helping the head nuns and teaching these nuns is also originally from the northern areas of Monywa.
We returned to the nunnery to donate blankets for all 60 nuns, bought with the remaining funds we had available for supporting monastics. However, there is more work to be done, as the unseasonably cold weather continues to affect the country. We call on any kind-hearted and compassionate donor to consider supporting our work, and bring more warmth to these young nuns in need.
