This archive report was first published on 28 November 2019.
On a mission to challenge stereotypes about women's roles in patriarchal societies, a group of Himalayan kung fu nuns have been making waves in South Asia.
Practicing kung fu after their morning prayers and chants, the nuns from Nepal's 800-strong Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery belong to the centuries-old Drukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.
According to AFP, the nuns were encouraged by spiritual leader His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa in 2008 to learn kung fu and take on traditional norms that forbid women and girls from leaving the confines of the nunneries, leading prayers or being fully ordained.
Emboldened by their fighting prowess, the nuns travel across South Asia to teach self-defence classes and promote awareness about human trafficking in a region where violence against women is rarely reported.
They also embark on gruelling mountain walks and cycling campaigns to reach out to remote communities.
Most recently, they completed a three-month, 8,370-kilometre "bicycle yatra (journey) for peace" from Nepal to the mountains of Ladakh in northern India, where they passed through villages and spread their messages of gender equality and empowerment.
Practitioner Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 25, who was in New Delhi in early November after picking up an international award in New York for the nunnery's efforts, became a nun at just 12 despite strong disapproval from her family.
"In the Himalayas, girls are never treated equally and girls are not given equal chances -- that's why we want to push the girls up," Lhamo told AFP.
"Kung fu has helped us in taking a stand on gender equality as we feel more confident, we feel strong physically and mentally," she added.
