Kung Fu Nuns Just Cycled From Nepal To Leh In Solidarity Against Human Trafficking

500 Buddhist Nuns cycled across Kathmandu, Nepal, through the treacherous Himalayan mountains to reach Leh, India on Saturday. Also known as Kung Fu Nuns, they travelled 4000 kms to bring awareness about human trafficking and the importance of girl child in remote regions.

In an exclusive interview to Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Nuns revealed the reason behind their giant cycling journey. “When we were doing relief work in Nepal after the earthquakes last year, we heard how girls from poor families were being sold because their parents could not afford to keep them anymore,” 22-year-old nun Jigme Konchok Lhamo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The report stated that their understanding of human trafficking changed completely after that incident and since His Holiness had given them the opportunity to take leadership roles, they brought their prayers into action.

They started practicing Martial Arts to safeguard themselves from attacks and jealous monks. The nuns from the Drukpa Order of Buddhism came together from India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet to carry their message to policy influencers.

“This is the fourth such journey they have made, meeting local people, government officials and religious leaders to spread messages of gender equality, peaceful co-existence and respect for the environment. They also deliver food to the poor, help villagers get medical care and are dubbed the “Kung Fu nuns” due to their training in martial arts.

Led by the Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa Order, the nuns raise eyebrows, especially among Buddhists for their unorthodox activities. “Traditionally Buddhist nuns are treated very differently from monks. They cook and clean and are not allowed to exercise. But his Holiness thought this was nonsense and decided to buck the trend,” said Carrie Lee, president of Live to Love International, a charity which works with the Drukpa nuns to support marginalized Himalayan communities.” Reuters reported.

Buddhist nuns from the Drukpa lineage pose for a picture in Himachal Pradesh during their cycle across the Himalayas to raise awareness about human trafficking of girls and women in the impoverished villages in Nepal and India, August 30, 2016. Image and Caption Courtesy: Thomson Reuters Foundation

A report in The Conversation stated how bad the situation for children can get after a disaster strikes and how they are most vulnerable to trafficking after a calamity. “In the desolation (of the Nepal Earthquake), chaos and widespread panic that followed, a surge in child trafficking was inevitable.

Just as it was after the 2004 tsunami in southern Asia, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2011 drought in Horn of Africa, the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, and many other natural disasters besides. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation.

A 2001 estimate suggested that 12,000 girls are trafficked from Nepal to India annually for prostitution, a horror highlighted in the book and movie Sold. This number took no account of any other trafficking from or within Nepal. Current estimates put the annual total at around 20,000,” it reported.

Wearing black sweat pants, red jackets and camping in the open, the Kung Fu nuns are nonviolently kicking ass. “”People think that because we are nuns, we are supposed to stay in the temples and pray all the time. But praying is not enough,” said Jigme Konchok Lhamo to TRF.