Sera Monastery

Sera Monastery, located at the foot of the Wuze Hill in Sera to the north of Lhasa, is one of the three great monasteries in Lhasa and one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug Sect of Buddhism in Tibet.

Sera Monastery got its name from the sera flowers (wild rose) on the hill. In 1414, Jamchen Chojey (or Sakya Yeshe), one of Tsong Khapa's disciples, visited Emperor Chengzu as Tsong Khapa's emissary. The Emperor Chengzu granted him a title of Dharma King of Great Mercy, sutras, and a set of sandalwood Arhats. In order to preserve them, Tsong Khapa instructed Jamchen Chojey to build a monastery to house the treasures. The Sera monastery was completed in 1419. Enshrined in the Monastery are the 16 Arharts carved out of sandalwood from the Ming Emperor, over 10,000 golden copper Buddhist statues and the holy prayer sripture ganzhuer written in cinnabar etc.

Sera Monastery, occupying a floor space of 1,000 square meters,is a four-storied hall with four chapels in which Arhats, Manjushri, Tsong Khapa, and Chenrezi are enshrined. It houses three colleges including Sera Me college built in 1419, Sera Je college built in 1435 and Ngagpa college built in 1559.