Orlando Sentinel, 17th April 2010 - A group of Buddhist nuns in Nepal say their confidence is up and they’re getting more respect these days because they’ve taken up fight training.

The BBC reports that women of the 800-year-old Drukpa Buddhist sect are being taught kung fu by a Vietnamese master.

Other nuns are impressed. A nun named Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo says that after seeing demonstrations, she intends to bring the practice to her own nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, an Indian state.

“It’s excellent exercise, secondly it’s very good for discipline and concentration, thirdly it arouses a sense of self-confidence which is very important for nuns, and fourthly when any young men in the area know nuns are kung fu experts, they keep away,” she says.

As a bonus, interest in becoming a nun has increased since the groups of women have been able to offer better education and exercise programs.