Place · Gelug monastic university · China
Sera Monastery, Lhasa
Also known as Sera Gompa
Sera ('Wild Rose') monastery north of Lhasa, founded by Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe in 1419 after his return from the court of the Ming Yongle emperor, is one of the three great Gelug 'seats' with Drepung and Ganden. Before 1959 it housed about 5,000 monks across three colleges (Sera Je, Sera Me and the Ngagpa tantric college). Sera is best known for its vigorous debating courtyard, where monks argue philosophical propositions with hand-claps as time-markers and open-palm emphatic gestures. Sera is re-established in exile at Bylakuppe, Karnataka — Sera Je in exile today holds about 3,000 monks on the Bangalore-Mysore road.
- Function
- Learning & scholarship
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 29.700, 91.136
Connections (4)
- Site withinLhasa
Sera is one of the great monasteries of greater Lhasa — the political and religious capital of Tibet from Songtsen Gampo's 7th-century reign to the Chinese annexation of 1950. Lhasa carries the Potala, the Jokhang and the three great Gelug seats (Drepung, Sera, Ganden) in its immediate landscape.
- PatronageJe Tsongkhapa
Sera monastery was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe, another of Tsongkhapa's direct disciples, after Shakya Yeshe's return from the court of the Ming Yongle emperor. Sera is best known for its vigorous open-courtyard debating tradition.
- Life routeTenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
Sera is one of the three great Gelug seats; the 14th Dalai Lama took his geshe lharam examination at Sera's debating courtyard in 1958, the year before the flight to India.
- Institutionalised atGelug — the Yellow Hat school
Sera Monastery is one of the three great seats of the Gelug school.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard reference.
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