A Nun’s Perspective:
Karsha Nuns in Auroville
A Project from Serena Aurora & Aurora’s Eye Films
“We are funding a trip to bring 10 nuns from Karsha Nunnery, Zanskar, Ladakh, to Auroville Pondicherry. Filmmaker Serena Aurora will create a documentary based on their travel experience, to help bring awareness to the Karsha Nunnery.
The nuns live in an austere mountain environment with few amenities, and some have never seen a tree! Their visit to Auroville will give them skills and experience to will help them develop their livelihood at the nunnery.
The raised funds will be used solely for the nuns’ travel expenses. Thank you for your support!”
-Serena Aurora
WATCH SERENA’S FIRST DOCUMENTARY
IN ZANSKAR
Help us reach our goal of $5,000 to benefit the Nuns of Karsha!
The funds raised are solely for the nuns trip expenses:
$500 is the cost of travel for 1 nun
$150 is the cost of the train fare for 1 nun
$350 covers room and board, local travel, translator and materials in Auroville for 1 nun
Serena Aurora on the Project:
Two years ago, I had an amazing opportunity to live in a nunnery in Ladakh for some weeks. A dream came true for me.
This nunnery is called Karsha or Chukshikjal, founded in 1957 and located in the Zanskar Valley in the Himalayas. A very remote place with very harsh living conditions. Some call it ‘Little Tibet’ as the people are almost untouched by modernisation and practice traditional Tibetan Buddhism, as in Tibet.
The nuns are native to Ladakh, and have embraced the practice the Gelugpa, Yellow Hat sect (also known as Dge-lugs-pa), of Tibetan Buddhism of Dalai Lama.
In Auroville, I’d like to take the nuns to the Matrimandir. How would the silently charged atmosphere ofthe Matrimandir, the soul of our City, compare to their colourful, vibrant, loud, traditional way ofworship?
Then we would visit WasteLess, where the nuns would be informed about water and plastic pollution which is also a big problem in Ladakh; Ecofemme, where the ladies can learn and empower themselves about women’s health and menstruation. In the Himalayas, this is a taboo and unspoken subject. Informing and empowering the nuns would enable a start to breaking this social construct.
Another stop in this itinerary would be Auroville Earth Institute. The nuns built Karsha nunnery themselves with local and natural materials, however it’s still very primitive, maybe they could pick upsome new tips, tricks, and techniques to improve their living conditions making it more bearable. Coming from a vast semi-desert mountainous terrain, there are basically no trees, they haven’t seen aforest.
Pitchandikulam Forest is a must, as well as a lunch and walk at Botanical Gardens where theycan explore the tropical diverse flora and fauna. The final stop, the sea. This would be the nuns firstexperience of the ocean and would be a magical moment to capture.
Aurelio from Swaram is interested in doing a collaboration event, where the nuns would chant, and the Swaram team play instruments. It would be amazing if this could happen in the Matrimandir gardens tofurther spread this healing energy.
The funds we are raising in total is $5,000, around 4000 Euro, and will go towards the travel, food, and accommodation for the nuns and film crew.
The rest of this experience is priceless.
About the Karsha Nunnery
These nuns built this nunnery themselves, over the last 60 or so years, stone by stone, carrying them up the mountain.
You see, in this part of the world, monks are highly respected, however women have had to fight for their spiritual freedom. Some think that women can not get enlightened.
It’s only been in the last 60 years or so, in this village, where women have created their own spiritual house for worship, one of which is the Karsha nunnery. An incredible achievement.
Serena Aurora and Aurora’s Eye Films
Serena Aurora is an award winning, internationally recognized, Auroville based filmmaker.
Originally from England, Serena has been working from Auroville for more than a decade, exploring the variety of experiences arising from life in the International City of Hope.
Her filmmaking company, Aurora’s Eye Films has produced numerous short and long documentaries about different facets of life in India.
AVI USA is thrilled to support Serena’s second project.