Sera Monastery
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Sera Monastery (Tibetan: སེ་ར་; Wylie: Se-ra) is one of the 'great three' Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery
The original Sera monastery is in Lhasa, Tibet.
It was founded in 1414, by Jamchen Chojey (Sakya Yeshe), a disciple of Tsong Khapa.
Like the Drepung and Ganden monasteries, it had three colleges:
- Sera Mey Dratsang, built in 1419
- Sera Jey Dratsang, built in 1435
- Ngagpa Dratsang, built in 1559.
After the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the destruction of the majority of the monasteries in Tibet, Sera monastery was reformed in Bylakuppe, India, near Mysore. Because none of the monks of the Ngagpa Dratsang (Tantric College) survived the invasion, only the Sera Mey College and Sera Jey College were reformed in India. Sera Monastery is still standing in Tibet, and once again houses some Tibetan Buddhist monks.
Graduates of Sera Jey College who are known in the west include:
- Lama Thubten Yeshe
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
- Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
Graduates of Sera Mey college who are known in the west include:
- Pabongka Rinpoche—Author of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands
- Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche—one of the current Dalai Lama's teachers
- Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin—former abbot of Sera Mey university in Bylakuppe
- Geshe Michael Roach—founder of Asian Classics Instutite, Asian Classics Input Project and Diamond Mountain University and retreat center.
[edit] References
- The Sera Monastery Project --An excellent multimedia cultural history of Sera Monastery at the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library
- ↑ Sera Monastery: Tibet Lhasa Travel Guide—provides some history of Sera Monastery in Tibet, as well as information for tourists in Tibet who are interested in visiting the old monastery.
- ↑ Sera Mey Monastery (Asian Classics Institute)—Information about the new monastery in Bylakuppe,
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Personal journal, Jonnalagadda Chandra Kiran—photos taken by a tourist of the monastery and village in Bylakuppe
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