Sera Monastery
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- Sera monastery was founded in 1419 by a disciple of Tsongkhapa named Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe (byams chen chos rje sha kya ye shes) (1354-1435). Before a monastery was built in Sera, Tsongkhapa had established hermitages in the cliffs above. Over the years, the monastery grew to have close to 6000 monks. Sera became one of the three largest Gelukpa monasteries in Tibet along with Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. Sera quickly began to attract such large numbers of monks that the third throne holder, Gungru Gyaltsen Zangpo (gung ru rgyal mtshan bzang po) (1383-1450), had to partition the monastery into four colleges. Today there is only two main sutric colleges known as Sera May and Sera Jay and one mantric college known as Ngakpa Dratsang (sngags pa grwa tshang). Sera Gon has been reestablished in India.
- Introduction to Sera Monastery