Tergar Shrine Hall,
29 February 2024
༄༅། །བོད་རབ་རྒྱན་ཤིང་འབྲུག་ལོའི་བོད་ཟླ་ ༡ ཚེས་ ༢༠ དང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༤ཟླ་ ༢ ཚེས་ ༢༩ ཉིན། གནས་མཆོག་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན། གཏེར་སྒར་རིག་འཛིན་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་དུ། འཕགས་མ་བདེ་བྱེད་མའི་དཔྱིད་ཆོས་ཐེངས་བརྒྱད་པའི་མཚན་ཕུད་དམ་བཅའ་ཆེན་མོའི་བརྙན་ཕྱོགས་བསྡུས་ཡིན།
After the Gyalwang Karmapa’s final teaching session, the nuns and their teachers gathered in Tergar Shrine Hall for the concluding session of the 8th Arya Kshema. This was in three parts. First came the so-called All-Night Grand Debate, second was the awards ceremony for the nuns, and finally thank-you certificates and gifts were presented to all those who had helped in the organisation of the gathering.
The All-Night Grand Debate is the traditional conclusion of annual monastic debate gatherings, a marathon session of the grand debate which lasts all night. Some Tibetan schools still keep this tradition, but within the Karma Kamtsang the debate ends before midnight.
The nuns, their teachers, the judges, staff from Tergar and Tsurphu Labrang, all gathered together in the shrine hall to witness the debates.
As this is a celebratory occasion, the nuns participating in the debates wore ceremonial dress, a beautiful brocade tönka (waistcoat). The three responders wore the tse sha, the pointed hat which is thought to derive from the hats which the pandits used to wear at Nalanda Monastery.
The audience listened intently as the group of nuns presenting the arguments displayed their skills, challenging the responders seated in front of the assembly, who countered them confidently, drawing on logic and Buddhist scriptures.
