Nagi Gompa

Nagi Gompa sits on the southern slope of Shivapuri, the mountain north of Kathmandu, inside what the Treasury of Lives calls the Shivapuri Wildlife Preserve. The 16th Karmapa gave the nunnery to Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche to look after in the early 1960s. He built it up into a centre for nuns and female practitioners, with a main temple and simple dwellings.

He lived here for thirty-three years, according to Samye Institute, completing about two decades in retreat, including four three-year retreats. He made the three large statues in the main temple: Buddha Shakyamuni, Guru Rinpoche and the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. He also gave the nuns regular practice instruction and encouraged them to keep the core practices of the Chokling Tersar.

Today the nuns train in Buddhist philosophy, ritual arts and meditation, and are known for their performance of chöd. They practise a Tara puja daily. The nunnery lies directly below the Tara Bir Cliff, which Samye Institute describes as sacred to Tara. Nagi Gompa is part of the same community as Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, and under Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s guidance it has its own school, its shedra and the nuns’ three-year retreat facility. Samye Institute reports that the 2015 earthquake damaged the retreat centre and other buildings.

For visitors, the sources say serious lay practitioners are welcome for short and long retreats. That is a different thing from dropping in. Ask the monastery first, and treat the place as the home of a nuns’ community.