Sera Monastery

Sera Monastery (Tib. Sera Gönpa; Wyl. se ra dgon pa) — founded by Jamchen Chöjé Shakya Yeshe (1354-1435), a close disciple of Tsongkhapa, in 1419, Sera Monastery was the second largest of the three great Gelugpa monasteries near Lhasa, with more than 8,000 monks before 1959.

Colleges

Originally there were five colleges at Sera: Gya (rgya), Drom (grom), Döpa ('dod pa), Mépa (smad pa) and Jépa (byes pa). These were eventually absorbed into Jépa and Mépa, which became the two philosophical colleges (Tib. tsennyi dratsang; Wyl. mtshan nyid grwa tshang) while, a third college, the Tantric College (Tib. Ngakpa Dratsang; Wyl. sngags pa grwa tshang) was added for studies of vajrayana topics.

Further Reading

• Cabezón, José Ignacio. “The Regulations of a Monastery.” In Religions of Tibet in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.

External Links

• Multimedia Database of Sera Monastery on new THL website