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Sera Monastery
Sera Monastery
	; Monks practicing their debating skills following afternoon meditation
Tibetan name
Tibetan:	སེ་ར་
Wylie transliteration:	Se-ra
Chinese name
traditional:	色拉寺
simplified:	色拉寺
	; Sera Monastery Location within Tibet
Coordinates:	29°41′53″N 91°8′0″E / 29.69806°N 91.133333°E
Monastery information
Location:	Wangbur Mountain, Lhasa Prefecture, Tibet, China
Founded by:	Jamchen Chojey
Founded:	1419
Type:	Tibetan Buddhist
Sect:	Gelug
Dedicated to:	Je Tsongkhapa
Colleges:	Pabonka Hermitage, Purbuchok Hermitage

Sera Monastery (Tibetan: སེ་ར་; Wylie: Se-ra; simplified Chinese: 色拉寺; traditional Chinese: 色拉寺) is one of the 'great three' Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. The origin of the name 'Sera' is not certain, but it may derive from the fact that the original site was surrounded by 'Wild Roses' (se ra in Tibetan). The original Sera monastery is in Lhasa, Tibet, about 5 km north of the Jokang in Lhasa. After the Chinese took control of Tibet in 1959, it was reconstituted in Bylakuppe,^[1] India, near Mysore. The original in Tibet continues as a working monastery.

[edit] History

Sera Monastery

Sera was founded in 1419, by Jamchen Chojey (Sakya Yeshe), a disciple of Tsong Khapa.

Like the Drepung and Ganden monasteries, it had several colleges: Sera Mey Dratsang, built in 1419, gave basic instruction to the monks. Sera Jey Dratsang, built in 1435, was the largest, and was reserved for wandering monks, especially Mongol monks. Ngagpa Dratsang, built in 1559, was a school for the teaching of the Gelukpa tantras.

Young monks printing scriptures. Sera Monastery, 1993

Monks' debate practice at Sera Monastery, April 2009

Sera housed more than 5,000 monks in 1959. Although badly damaged following the invasion of Tibet and the Cultural Revolution, it is still standing and has been largely repaired. In 2008, it housed 550 Buddhist monks, but the number dropped to only a handful after the 2008 Tibetan unrest. ^[2].

After the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the destruction of the majority of the monasteries in Tibet, Sera monastery was re-formed in Bylakuppe, India, near Mysore.

Because none of the monks of the Ngagpa Dratsang (Tantric College) survived the invasion^[3], only the Sera Mey College and Sera Jey College were re-formed in India.^[4]

Purbuchok Hermitage

Graduates of Sera Jey College who are known in the West include:

Geshe Ngawang Tsondu, Wisdom of The Staten Island Dharma Center, The Mediation Factory, and Tibet House, New York
Geshe Lhundub Sopa, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Geshe Rabten, an eminent monk who directed Tharpa Chloing Buddhist Center in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland
Lama Thubten Yeshe, founder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPTM)
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, founder of the New Kadampa Tradition
Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, a student of Lama Yeshe and presently director of FPMT

Monks practicing their debating skills.

Graduates of Sera Mey college who are known in the west include:

Pabongka Rinpoche — Author of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands - a highly revered Lama who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and was the Spiritual Guide of Trijang Rinpoche, the 14th Dalai Lama's own Spiritual Guide.
Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin—former abbot of Sera Mey university in Bylakuppe

[edit] Hermitages

Sera Monastery operates the following hermitages:www.visitnepalhimalaya.com

Chupzang Nunnery (chu bzang dgon)
Drakri Hermitage (brag ri ri khrod)
Garu Nunnery (ga ru dgon pa)
Jokpo Hermitage (’jog po ri khrod)
Keutsang Hermitage (ke’u tshang ri khrod)
Keutsang East Hermitage (ke’u tshang shar ri khrod)
Keutsang West Hermitage (ke’u tshang nub ri khrod)
Khardo Hermitage (mkhar do ri khrod)
Negodong Nunnery (gnas sgo gdong dgon pa)
Nenang Nunnery (gnas nang ri khrod)
Pabongkha Hermitage (pha bong kha ri khrod)
Panglung Hermitage (spang lung ri khrod)
Purbuchok Hermitage (phur bu lcog ri khrod)
Rakhadrak Hermitage (ra kha brag ri khrod)
Sera Chöding Hermitage (se ra chos sdings ri khrod)
Sera Gönpasar Hermitage (se ra dgon pa gsar ri khrod)
Sera Utsé Hermitage (se ra dbu rtse ri khrod)
Takten Hermitage (rtags bstan ri khrod)
Trashi Chöling Hermitage (bkra shis chos gling ri khrod)

[edit] Footnotes

^ Personal journal, Jonnalagadda Chandra Kiran—photos taken by a tourist of the monastery and village in Bylakuppe.
^ Buddhist Monk of Sera Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet
^ Wildlife, Tamed Mind—interview with David Patt, Glow Magazine, Spring, 1996. Contains some discussion of the rebuilding of Sera, and of the fate of Ngagpa Dratsang.
^ Sera Mey Monastery (Asian Classics Institute) — Information about the new monastery in Bylakuppe

The kitchen at Sera

[edit] References

Dowman, Keith. 1988. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and New York. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0.
Vitali, Roberto. 1990. Early Temples of Central Tibet. Serindia Publications. London. ISBN 0-906026-25-3.
The Sera Monastery Project at the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL)
Ngari Khangtsen - hostel at Sera Jey Monastery, Bylakuppe

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sera Monastery

Coordinates: 29°41′53″N 91°08′00″E / 29.69806°N 91.1333333°E / 29.69806; 91.1333333

[jace-0] Personal journal, Jonnalagadda Chandra Kiran—photos taken by a tourist of the monastery and village in Bylakuppe.

[1] Buddhist Monk of Sera Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet

[glow-2] Wildlife, Tamed Mind—interview with David Patt, Glow Magazine, Spring, 1996. Contains some discussion of the rebuilding of Sera, and of the fate of Ngagpa Dratsang.

[aci-3] Sera Mey Monastery (Asian Classics Institute) — Information about the new monastery in Bylakuppe

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Hermitages

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

[edit] External links