Sera Monastery

Sera is one of the three big monasteries of the gelugpa (“yellow hats”); the other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. It lies about 5 km north of the Jokhang midway of a mountain. Whereas before 1959 there lived about 5000 monks in Sera, now there about 300 monks living there (2011). Sera is a complex of the great assembly hall, colleges, nunneries, hermitages

Above Sera there is the yellow Sera Utsé hermitage, believed to have been the meditation place for Tsongkhapa.

Sera is also famous for the debating of the monks in the debating court. The question ends with a clap of the hands and the upper hand is directed towards the monk, who immediately has to answer the question. There are other gestures as well (which are also mentioned in the Wikipedia article).

Mandala

 

 Sera Utsé hermitage

 Debating monks

 Stone painting

 

 

Slant walls for stability

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sera_Monastery

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/08/ganden-monastery.html

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-big-thangka-at-sera-monastery.html

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