Sera

     The monastery was built in 1419 below a small hermitage of Tsongkhapa by his disciple Shakya Yeshe.  He had visited the court of the Emperor Yung-lo of Ming China instead of Tsongkhapa. In appreciation of this visit, he was given the titla Jamchen Choje (Great Gentle Dharma Lord). Many of the outlying building a Sera were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but its principal building remained intact. Today some 400 monks live at Sera, divided between its two main dratsangs (colleges) Sera Me and Sera Je.  In the last few years several of the (khangtsens) residential houses of the monks have been rebuilt for monks who have come to Sera to study. These buildings had suffered most, had been pillaged, and had been used to house soldiers. One of the most important object in Sera is the primordial vajra that was found by the tantric monk Dacharpa in Padmasamphava's cave in Drak Yerpa, which is now shown to the public once a year. 

1936-50, Hugh Richardson

    1981, (Source: *Tibet)

    1992, Anne L. Blasing