Newport’s Sravasti Abbey becomes a rare home to both nuns and monks after ordaining first men

For years, a group of women with clean-shaven heads wearing traditional Tibetan monastic red robes has been running a 240-acre abbey tucked in the woods just outside of Newport.

But it was never intended to be a women’s-only monastic training ground.

During the past eight years, the Srvasti Abbey has grown apace, ordaining six nuns, two monks and adding three previously ordained nuns to their community.

Most recently, Geshe Dadul Namgyal, an esteemed Buddhist scholar, joined Sravasti as the first male resident teacher. He joins abbess and founder Venerable Thubten Chodron and author Venerable Sangye Khadro as a senior teacher guiding and instructing the monastery’s now 20 monastics.

“After all these years of being mostly nuns, we now have a burgeoning community of men,” said Venerable Thubten Chonyi, a nun who oversees publicity at the abbey.

Venerable Thubten Losang became the first monk at Sravasti in 2015 after participating in a Sharing the Dharma Day there two years earlier. Then, in 2022, the abbey ordained its second monk.

Two more men who are currently in training are scheduled to take their novice ordination vows in May, bringing the abbey’s monk population to five.

Namgyal who has been a monk in the Tibetan tradition for more than 40 years, will lead the growing monk community at Sravasti.

He chose to reside at Sravasti after recently retiring from Emory University’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-based Ethics.

Venerable Thubten Ngawang, who joined the abbey as its second monk last year, said he was both surprised and grateful when he learned Namgyal was joining Sravasti.

“And it’s an ongoing recognition, a continual acknowledgment, like, wow, this is so precious,” Ngawang said.

Namgyal explained he first visited the abbey in 2008 for a workshop and since then had been visiting annually.

Each time, the nuns invited him to stay.

“The doors of the abbey have always been open to me,” he said. “The center has the most ideal conditions for individual growth as well as sharing with the world.”

He added that the abbey being located in the U.S was a big draw. Sravasti Abbey is among the first Tibetan Buddhist monasteries for Western nuns and monks in the United States.

“The sincerity of the practitioners, that is the most powerful. It is evident that everyone here is aware of what they’re here for, to work on and improve their mental attitudes. Everybody seems to really embody and be trying their best in really walking the path. So, that was very evident. That was the most attractive thing,” he said.

Ngawang felt a similar pull to the abbey. He first visited in 2014.

“I was so inspired and impressed by the nuns, and there were only nuns (then),” he said.

He came originally to meet Chodron, whose book “Open Heart, Clear Mind” he said changed his life.

“I saw these women that were so well-rounded, so balanced in their approach to life. It wasn’t just about spiritual development, but it was about … being a good human being,” Ngawang said, noting that their commitment to living a sustainable life also inspired him.

He moved from Atlanta to Spokane to be closer to Sravasti. COVID-19, he said, was the final push he needed to commit to monastic life.

“The abbey was shutting down to people that were outside of the community. At that point, I really had to make a decision. Do I want to be at the Abbey? Or do I want to be in Spokane disconnected from the Abbey?” he recalled.

He moved to Sravasti in 2021 for training and was ordained as a novice monk seven months ago.

With only two fully ordained monks at the abbey, there weren’t enough men for a sangha, a community of at least four. Without a sangha, the monks haven’t been able to fully participate in monastic life.

Four fully ordained monastics are required for a sangha to do the three prescribed rites of a fully functioning monastic sangha: bi-monthly confession and restoration of precepts, the rains retreat or varsa and the end-of-varsa request for feedback.

“The Buddhist sangha is divided by gender, that’s how it is,” Ngawang explained. “There’s a bikshuni (nun) and a bikshu (monk) sangha and those necessarily are separate for certain Vinaya (disciplinary code) rites.”

With a bikshu sangha on the horizon, Ngawang said a path is opening for the abbey’s future.

“In order for men to have an equal opportunity, it sounds strange, but in order for the abbey really to offer the full experience of Buddhist monastic life to both genders, then it’s necessary to have a sangha,” he said.

But Ngawang said Sravasti being a place for both monks and nuns sends a significant message to the lay community, too.

“I think for other men to see role models like (Namgyal) is really helpful to envision what you can become,” he said. “I’ve heard many, many women say that about Venerable Chodron and Khadro and the seniors, so I think there’s that piece of having men also on this path that other men can see as role models that is valuable.”

He added that having both sanghas at the abbey embodies the unity Chodron consistently speaks of.

But co-ed Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are rare, and it’s unfamiliar to the abbey’s newest senior teacher.

He said so far the experience has been “wonderful.”

“I don’t take my resident teacher position so seriously. I see myself learning and making myself available to share in the understanding,” he said. “When you’re learning and sharing, it doesn’t feel like work.”

This summer, Namgyal will lead three summer courses titled “Working with Afflictive Minds: The First Steps” to be held at Sravasti Abbey June 17, July 28-30 and Aug. 18-20. He will also lead the abbey’s annual Labor Day weekend retreat in September.

Chonyi said even though Geshe-la has taken on a leadership position at the abbey and the monk community is growing, balance at Sravasti is – and will continue to be – key.

“Don’t think girl power is going anywhere,” she said.