Samding Dorje Phagmo
95-461: Sera Monastery ( Tibetan : སེ་ར་དགོན་པ , Wylie : se ra dgon pa "Wild Roses Monastery"; Chinese : 色拉寺 ; pinyin : Sèlā Sì ) is one of the "great three" Gelug university monasteries of Tibet , located 1.25 miles (2.01 km) north of Lhasa and about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the Jokhang . (The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery .) The origin of its name
190-422: A pathyā ("normal") form or one of several vipulā ("extended") forms. The form of the second foot of the first pāda (II.) limits the possible patterns the first foot (I.) may assume. The scheme below, given by Macdonell, shows his understanding of the form of the śloka in the classical period of Sanskrit literature (4th–11th centuries CE): [REDACTED] In poems of the intermediate period, such as
285-407: A śloka is recited, performers sometimes leave a pause after each pāda , at other times only after the second pāda . (See External links.) A Shloka has to be composed in a specific metre (chhanda), with a specific number of lines with a specific number of words per line, each word could be a mantra. For example, viṣṇu sahastranāma is in anuṣṭup chhanda (two lines of four words each). A mantra, on
380-427: A cave known to have been a meditation chamber of Songstan Gampo himself and contains statues of himself, his two wives and a rock carving of Palden Lhamo , the protectress. The hermitage notably has its own tradition of monthly and yearly ritual cycles. The most important of these yearly ritual events (at least for the laity) are the six-day (three sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during
475-505: A few hundred Sera Jey lamas, geshes and monks), when they arrived in India, they were resettled at Bylakuppe near Mysore , Karnataka state among many other locations spread across the country, as one of the exclusive Tibetan establishments with ready assistance forthcoming from the Government of India . It was in 1970 that the group of 197 Sera Jey monks with 103 of Sera Mey monks established
570-502: A landslide. What is present now was rebuilt, adjoining the ruined Keutsang West Hermitage, at a safer location. As it exists now, Keutsang is located to the east of Sera on a hill side above Lhasa’s principal cemetery. Rakhadrak Hermitage is located below this hermitage, within a close distance. This hermitage is also part of the Sera Mountain Circumambulation Circuit (se ra’i ri ’khor) that pilgrims undertake during
665-453: A space. Spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. As in other Indic scripts , each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel ; in the Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter ཨ is also the base for dependent vowel marks. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal , the language had no tone at the time of
760-638: A special monastery within the resettlement of Bylakuppe as a counterpart of the Tibetan Sera Jey Monastery. As none of the monks of the Ngagpa Dratsang (Tantric College) had survived the invasion, only the Sera Mey College and Sera Jey College were re-formed in India. The Bylakuppe Monastery now houses 5,000 Buddhist monks comprising some migrants and many other Tibetans who were not born in their ancestral homeland. With forest land allotted by
855-591: A three-dimensional model of Guru Rinpoche's celestial palace, the Glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain ( Zangs mdog dpal ri ). Today there are four tantric priests residing in the main temple compound and two nuns living in huts to the southeast. The ruins of Jokpo Hermitage ( ’jog po ri khrod ) is located in the far western end of the Nyang bran Valley. The former property of the Jokpo Lama’s estate before
950-641: A time and later he sought asylum in India in the 1980s. The hermitage was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Rebuilding it was started by a former monk of the hermitage in 1991 and was completed by 1992. The rebuilt hermitage now houses 25 monks. Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or abugida , derived from Brahmic scripts and Gupta script , and used to write certain Tibetic languages , including Tibetan , Dzongkha , Sikkimese , Ladakhi , Jirel and Balti . It
1045-491: A written tradition. Amdo Tibetan was one of a few examples where Buddhist practitioners initiated a spelling reform. A spelling reform of the Ladakhi language was controversial in part because it was first initiated by Christian missionaries. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as
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#17328523398881140-473: Is a complex of structures founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey Sakya Yeshe of Zel Gungtang (1355–1435), a disciple of Je Tsongkhapa. Prior to establishing this monastery, Tsongkhapa, assisted by his disciples, had set up hermitages at higher elevations above Sera Utsé Hermitage . The Sera complex is divided into two sectors by pathways; the eastern part contains the Great Assembly Hall and the dwellings and
1235-410: Is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /ɲa/. Similarly, the consonants ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྲ /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; ཀྱ /ca/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance,
1330-482: Is attributed to a fact that during construction, the hill behind the monastery was covered with blooming wild roses (or "sera" in Tibetan). (An alternate etymology holds that the location that was surrounded by raspberry shrubs called 'Sewa' in Tibetan, that formed like a 'Rawa' in Tibetan, meaning "Fence".) The original Sera Monastery is responsible for some 19 hermitages, including four nunneries, which are all located in
1425-634: Is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version. Since
1520-541: Is given a separate cell. Each Kamcun also has a prayer hall for exclusive study of Buddhist doctrine and also has annexed tea house. However, the main assembly hall here had minor images of Tsongkhapa, Choyi Gyeltsen, Shakhyamuni Buddha, Three Deities of Longevity, and two inner chapels – the Jampakhang with ‘speaking’ image of Tara (protector of the springs in Sera) and Lama Tubten Kunga (who renovated Sera Me) and Gonkhang chapel with
1615-820: Is similar to the Vedic anuṣṭubh metre, but with stricter rules. The śloka is the basis for Indian epic poetry , and may be considered the Indian verse form par excellence , occurring as it does far more frequently than any other metre in classical Sanskrit poetry . The śloka is the verse-form generally used in the Mahabharata , the Ramayana , the Puranas , Smritis , and scientific treatises of Hinduism such as Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita . The Mahabharata , for example, features many verse metres in its chapters, but 95% of
1710-528: Is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/). The vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ /ka/, ཀི /ki/, ཀུ /ku/, ཀེ /ke/, ཀོ /ko/. The vowels ཨི /i/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while
1805-560: Is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The head ( མགོ in Tibetan, Wylie: mgo ) letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ས /sa/. The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants ཡ /ja/, ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ཝ /wa/. In this position they are described as བཏགས (Wylie: btags , IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for ཝ , which
1900-520: Is the treasured possession of the monastery. It is said that Chengzhu, emperor of the Ming dynasty , presented these scriptures (printed on wood blocks with gold cover engraved in red lacquer and made in China) to Jamchen Chojey, the builder of the monastery. The entrance to the hall was through a portico built on 10 columns. Large appliqué Thangkas were suspended from the ceiling on the side walls. A skylight at
1995-565: Is used across the Himalayas and Tibet . The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India , Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha , Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script , and is also closely related to Meitei . According to Tibetan historiography,
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#17328523398882090-480: The Tibetan Annals have revealed that Pabonka was converted into a monastery, possibly under the reign of the second great Buddhist king of Tibet Trisong Detsen . Detsen, along with Guru Rinpoche and the first seven monks of the new Tibetan Empire used to meditate at the hermitage and it became one of Tibet's very earliest Buddhist monasteries, possibly even pre-dating Jokhang . The original nine-storied monastery
2185-685: The na- , bha- , ma- , and ra-vipulā . A fifth vipulā , known as the minor Ionic, in which the first pāda ends | u u – x |, is sometimes found in the Mahābhārata , although rarely. Macdonell's chart given above is in fact too restrictive with regard the first four syllables in a vipulā verse. For example, the first quarter verse of the Rāmayaṇa (critical edition) contains a na-vipulā and scans ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – ( tapaḥsvādhyāyanirataṃ ). Other examples are easy to find among classical poets, e.g., Rāmacarita 1.76 manyur dehāvadhir ayaṃ – – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ –. In
2280-567: The Bhagavad Gita , a fourth vipulā is found. This occurs 28 times in the Bhagavad Gita, that is, as often as the third vipulā . When this vipulā is used, there is a word-break (caesura) after the fourth syllable: Two rules that always apply are: The pathyā and vipulā half-verses are arranged in the table above in order of frequency of occurrence. Out of 2579 half-verses taken from Kalidasa , Bharavi , Magha , and Bilhana , each of
2375-472: The Cultural Revolution but when Sera monks restored the hermitage they excavated the relics and restored most of them. A central shrine, dating back 1300 years to Gampo, is located in the temple and depicts Chenresig , Jampelyang and Chana Dorje , the so-called "Rigsum Gompo Trinity" from which the temple takes its name. Up the hill from the hermitage, past a group of chortens , is Palden Lhamo Cave,
2470-700: The Gelukpa Order , a much-venerated and highly-learned guru in Buddhist scriptures. It was under his tutelage — seen by followers as divine — that his disciple Jetsun Kunkhen Lodroe Rinchen Senge established the Sera Jey Monastery complex in the early 15th century AD. Kunkhyen Lodroe Rinchen Senge initially served as a teacher in the Drepung Monastery before he formed the Sera Jey. The religious legend holds that
2565-880: The Latin script . Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound. While the Wylie transliteration system is widely used to Romanize Standard Tibetan , others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012). Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), Tibetan pinyin (TP), Dzongkha phonetic (DP), ALA-LC Romanization (A) and THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (THL). The first version of Microsoft Windows to support
2660-507: The 18th century by Lhazang Khan . Devoted to tantric studies, the college had an assembly hall and two chapels in the ground floor. The Assembly hall was built with four tall and 42 short columns with elegantly carved capitals. The main image in the centre of the hall was of Jamchen Chojey (wearing a black hat), founder of the monastery. It was believed that the Yongle Emperor (1360–1424) presented this image to Sera. Other images enshrined in
2755-421: The 3000 or more monks living here now. Encouraged by this success and noting the pressure on existing infrastructure, an additional, much larger and an impressive Assembly hall (measuring 23,275 square feet (2,162.3 m), 31 feet (9.4 m) high with 110 pillars) has been built that can accommodate 3500 monks to assemble for prayers. With this development, Sera has now two facets, the original “Tibetan Sera” and
2850-508: The 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform , to write Tibetan as it is pronounced ; for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud . The nomadic Amdo Tibetan and the western dialects of the Ladakhi language , as well as the Balti language , come very close to the Old Tibetan spellings. Despite that,
2945-617: The Bylakuppe “New Sera” of the “Tibetan Diaspora” with the counterpart Jé, Mé monasteries, with the Ngakpa college counterpart also added recently. The Sera-India monk community of the Bylakuppe Monastery, has gone global with their missionary activity by establishing “dharma centres” in many parts the world, thus removing the cultural isolation of pre-1959 years in Tibet. The monastery is located on
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3040-586: The Chinese Emperor); and the Jigje Lakhang chapel housed the 15th century image of Bhairava along with those of Mahakala , Dharmaraja , Shridevi and many others. While the third story was the residence of the Dalai Lama, the second floor had the images Amitayus and also eight 'Medicine Buddhas', as also reliquaries (stupas) of Gyeltsen Zangpo and Jetsun Chokyi Gyeltsen. However, as per reports, this college
3135-456: The Chinese invasion his body was buried and decayed and when the regional house (khang tshan) was rebuilt in the 1980s, his bones were exhumed. These are today placed inside the altar's clay statue in the regional house temple. Keutsang Hermitage ( Ke’u tshang ri khrod ) was a precariously perched cave hermitage inhabited by the great Tibetan guru Tsongkhapa. However, the original cave collapsed in
3230-545: The Chinese invasion in 1959, it originally served as the meditation retreat of a monk named ’Jog po rin po che of the Sera Mé College. The monk was a great meditator and according to tradition, after he died, his body remained in a state of perpetual meditative equipoise and was kept inside the Zhungpa Regional House temple where the monks reported that his hair and nails continued to grow even after his death. Before
3325-493: The Coqen Hall Tsokchen (Great Assembly Hall), the three Zhacangs (colleges) and Kamcun (dormitory) also called Homdong Kangtsang. In the main hall, scriptures (scripted with gold powder), statues, scent cloth and murals were seen in profusion. The descriptions given here relate to the scenario that existed at the monastery prior to the 1959 invasion by China but most of the monasteries are stated to be since restored, though
3420-644: The Dalai Lamas and the preceptors of the Main Assembly Hall. Sera Me Tratsang or Sera Me Zhakan was the oldest college built here. It was established in 1419 during the Ming dynasty reign, initially for elementary or basic education in Buddhist religion. The college adopted a step-by-step approach to the studies of Buddhist doctrines; a practice particular to the Gelukpa or Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism . The college
3515-767: The Dusum Sangye Lhakhang which housed statues of “Buddhas of Three Times” and Eight Bodhistavas; the Tamdrin Lhakhang housed the main image of Hayagriva; the Jhampa Lhakhang contained images of Maitreya, Eleven-faced Mahakarunika, and Tsongkhapa with his disciples amidst a coveted library; the Tsongkhapa Lhakhang with images of Tsongkhapa with his best students, main Lamas of Sera Je, Nagarjuna and other Buddhist commentators of India, gate keepers Havagriva and Acala;
3610-635: The Government of India, two arms of the Sera Monastery, representing the migrant monks of the Tibetan Sera Je and Sera Me colleges were established; 193 Sera je monks got 147.75 acres (59.79 ha) and 107 monks of Sera Me got an allotment of the balance area. Further, 38 tenements were built with grants by the Government of India for the Monks to reside and pursue their vocation of monkshood coupled with tilling
3705-526: The Jampa Lhakhang, the Neten Lhakhang and Jigje Lhakhang. A 6 metres (20 ft) high image of Maitreya was deified in Jampa Lhakhang ensconced by Eight Bodhisattvas , the treasured Kagyur and guarded by Hayagriva and Acala at the entrance. Jigje Lhakhang houses the image of Bhairava with his consort Bhairavi , Shri Devi and other protector deities. On the second floor, there were three chapels:
3800-636: The Jampeyang Lhakhang to the north-east had two images of Manjushri, one in a Dharmacakramudra (teaching pose) looking towards the Debating Courtyard. The second floor of the monastery on the west called the Zelre Lhakhang provided an overview of the main Hayagriva image in the floor below, and also a small image of Nine-headed Hayagriva along with images of Padmasambhava , the 5th Dalai Lama and
3895-478: The King which were afterward translated. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution. A contemporary academic suggests that the script was instead developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to
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3990-675: The Neten Lhakhang with images of Buddha of Three Times in the company of 'Sixteen Elders' depicted in their mountain caves, volumes of the sacred Prajnaparamita text; the Jowokhang with large Buddha image (replaced an earlier image of Miwang Jowo Shakyamuni) along with Eight Bodhisattvas, and gatekeepers Hayagriva and Acala; and the Tsongkhapa Lhakhang, the last chapel on the right, with several images – Je Rinpoche, Atisha , Dromtonpa , Dalai Lamas I-III, Dalai Lama V, Jamchen Shakya Yeshe, Gyeltsen Zangpo (first teacher of Sera), Kunkhen Jangchub Penpa (founder of Sera Me) and many more. The second floor of
4085-609: The Sera hermitages is located about 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest of Lhasa in the Nyang bran Valley on the slopes of Mount Parasol. The site, which is over 1,300 years old, dates back to Songtsän Gampo , the founder of the Tibetan Empire , and was amongst the first buildings built in the Lhasa area by him during the 7th century after settlement. Although originally the site of his castle or fort,
4180-590: The Tibetan New Year ( Losar ) celebrations, the sixteen-day (eight sets of two-day) Avalokiteśvara fasting rituals that take place during the fourth Tibetan month (they attract many people from Lhasa and the surrounding districts), and a ritual and other events that take place during the “Sixth-Month Fourth-Day” pilgrimage. Drakri Hermitage ( brag ri ri khrod ), also known as Bari Hermitage ( sba ri ri khrod ) lies about three kilometres north and slightly east of central Lhasa. Drakri, believed to have been founded by
4275-720: The Tibetan keyboard layout is MS Windows Vista . The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007. In Ubuntu 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows. Mac OS -X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani. The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme
4370-482: The Tibetan script was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota , who was sent to India with 16 other students to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and written languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at the Pabonka Hermitage . This occurred c. 620 , towards the beginning of the king's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by
4465-587: The Zhelre Lhakhang from where Maitreya could be seen embossed with a small Tsongkhapa on its heart; the Tu-je Chenpo Lhakhang that had an Avalokiteshvara with eleven faces (found at Pawangka), Tara and six–armed Mahakala . The idol of Shakyamuni Buddha flanked by images of Gelukpa Lamas were placed in the Shakyamuni Lhakhang. The third and the fourth floors were used as private apartments for
4560-571: The abbot of Pha bong kh in the 18th century, was used as a meditational retreat by Klong rdol bla ma ngag dbang blo bzang (1719–1794), one of the most renowned scholars of the Lhopa Regional House (Lho pa khang tshan) of the Jé College (Grwa tshang byes). Drakri Hermitage had control over Garu Nunnery since its early history and supervised the training of the Garu nuns until 1959. In 1959, the monks of
4655-500: The arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key. The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of XFree86 . Tibetan was originally one of
4750-505: The author of the Rāmāyaṇa , in grief on seeing a hunter shoot down one of two birds in love. On seeing the sorrow (śoka) of the widowed bird, he was reminded of the sorrow Sītā felt on being separated from Shri Rama and began composing the Ramayana in shlokas. For this he is called the Ādikavi (first poet.) Each 16-syllable hemistich (half-verse), of two 8-syllable pādas , can take either
4845-407: The basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds. In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions. Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in
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#17328523398884940-414: The belief that Maitreya (Byams pa) assures rebirth to those whose remains are brought to the cemetery below Keu tshang and it is also believed that light rays are exchanged between the Maitreya image here and the Maitreya Chapel at the northern end of the Barskor in Lhasa. During the 1959 Cultural Revolution, the present and the fifth Keutsang incarnation ( Keutshang sku phreng lnga pa ) was incarcerated for
5035-497: The blessings of Lama Tsongkhapa, institutionalised the name of Hayagriva or Tamdin Yangsang as the supreme protector deity of the monastery. The assembly hall of the college depicted frescoes of Buddha's life achievements, the thrones of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas ; seen on its north wall were stupas (reliquaries) and images of Dalai Lama VIII and Dalai Lama XIII, Reting Telkus II and IX, and Lodro Rinchen (founder of Sera). The Chapels which were circumambulated sequentially are:
5130-441: The centre provided the light in the hall during the day. Image of the founder of the monastery Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe was deified as the central image. Other deities installed were of Maitreya (5 metres (16 ft) height and gilded) flanked by statues of two lions, Dalai Lamas V, VII and XII, Tsongkhapa (with his favourite disciples), Chokyi Gyeltsen, Desi Sangye Gyatso and many more. The three inner chapels, sequentially, are
5225-435: The college had the Nyima Lhakhang where image of Shakhyamuni Buddha was deified along with Tuwang Tsultrim, and the Khangyur Lhakhang with 1000 images of Tara which replaced the sacred texts that were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The third floor was reserved for the Dalai Lamas. Sera Je Tretsang (College) or Zhekong, the largest college in Sera complex, measured an area of 17,000 m (180,000 sq ft). It
5320-418: The consonants ག /kʰa/, ད /tʰa/, བ /pʰa/, མ /ma/ and འ /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants ག /kʰa/, ན /na/, བ /pʰa/, ད /tʰa/, མ /ma/, འ /a/, ར /ra/, ང /ŋa/, ས /sa/, and ལ /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position
5415-427: The foothills above Lhasa. The nunneries established are the Chupzang Nunnery , the Garu Nunnery , the Negodong Nunnery and the Nenang Nunnery and a few nuns of some of these nunneries held protest marches against the Chinese rule, and as a result suffered incarceration and indignities. Brief details of the hermitages and nunneries are: Pabonka Hermitage ( pha bong kha ri khrod ), the largest and most important of
5510-426: The foothills north of Lhasa. The Sera Monastery, as a complex of structures with the Great Assembly Hall and three colleges, was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey of Sakya Yeshe of Zel Gungtang (1355–1435), a disciple of Je Tsongkhapa . During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera monastery suffered severe damage, with its colleges destroyed and hundreds of monks killed. After the Dalai Lama took asylum in India , many of
5605-426: The four admissible forms of śloka in this order claims the following share: 2289, 116, 89, 85; that is, 89% of the half-verses have the regular pathyā form. The various vipulā s, in the order above, are known to scholars writing in English as the first, second, third and fourth vipulā , or the paeanic , choriambic , molossic , and trochaic vipulā respectively. In Sanskrit writers, they are referred to as
5700-552: The frequency of the vipulā s and the patterns in the earlier part of the pāda have been carried out to try to establish the preferences of various authors for different metrical patterns. It is believed that this may help to establish relative dates for the poems, and to identify interpolated passages. A typical śloka is the following, which opens the Bhagavad Gita : From the period of high classical Sanskrit literature comes this benediction, which opens Bāṇabhaṭṭa 's biographical poem Harṣacaritam (7th century CE): When
5795-539: The grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of Classical Tibetan would be similar to writing Italian according to Latin orthography, or to writing Hindi according to Sanskrit orthogrophy. However, modern Buddhist practitioners in the Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or to introduce
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#17328523398885890-432: The hall were of Maitreya, Gyeltsen Zangpo (first religious teacher of Sera), Pawangka Rinpoche, Tsongkhapa (with his principle disciples), Dalai Lama XIII, Chokyi Gyeltsen and Lodro Rinchen (founder of Sera Je). The two chapels housed many statues; in the Neten Lhakhang chapel of Shakyamuni Buddha along with images of 16 elders in double series (Upper series made in Tibetan style and the lower series in Chinese lacquer given by
5985-486: The hermitage of Tsongkhapa above the Great Assembly Hall. The Jé and Mé colleges were established to train monks, over a 20-year programme of tsennyi mtshan nyid grwa tshang (philosophical knowledge), which concludes with a geshe degree. The Ngakpa college, which predated the other two colleges, was exclusively devoted to the practice of tantric ritual. Before 1959, the administration of each college comprised an abbot with council of ten lamas for each college. Over
6080-400: The hermitage were evicted and the hermitage was turned into the notorious Drapchi Prison , which gained a reputation for being one of the most severe penal institutions run by the Chinese in Tibet. In the 1980s a citizen of Lhasa re-established the monastery under the Nyingma sect to remember his late mother. After receiving permission from the Lhasa municipal government, he began renovating
6175-437: The image of the protector deity Gyelchen Karma Trinle. Choding Khang is the hermitage located just behind the Great Assembly Hall (on the hill slope of Sera Utse). This is where Je Tsongkhapa meditated. The hermitage is accessed through a track where painted rock carvings of Tsongkhapa, Jamchen and Dharma Raja (the protector) are seen flanking the stepped approaches, along the route. A new building has been constructed in place of
6270-452: The introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota . The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are their key evidence for their hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script. Three orthographic standardisations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate
6365-403: The ma-vipulā, a caesura is not obligatory after the fifth syllable, e.g., Śiśupālavadha 2.1a yiyakṣamāṇenāhūtaḥ ⏑ – ⏑ – – – – –. Noteworthy is the avoidance of an iambic cadence in the first pāda . By comparison, syllables 5–8 of any pāda in the old Vedic anuṣṭubh metre typically had the iambic ending u – u x (where "x" represents an anceps syllable). Statistical studies examining
6460-415: The main deity were of Maitreya, Manjushri , Amatyas, Bhavishyaguru, Tsongkhapa (with his students), Dalai Lama VII, Pawanga Rinpoche and several other past teachers of the college. The college had five chapels with plethora of statues and frescoes, which from west to east were: Tawok Lhkhang with images of Tawok, protection deity of the east, the Je Rinpoche Lhakhang with images of Tsongkhapa and Shakyamuni,
6555-428: The main temple which before 1959 served as the meeting rooms and the living quarters of the workers and business managers of the Drakri Lama's estate, a building that had served as the living quarters for the eight fully ordained monks who formed the ritual core of the monastic community, a stable for mdzo, a yak-cow hybrid and several huts. The main temple contains statues of Guru Rinpoche and several tantric deities and
6650-633: The monks of Sera who survived the attack moved to Bylakuppe in Mysore , India. After initial tribulations, they established a parallel Sera Monastery with Sera Me and Sera Je colleges and a Great Assembly Hall on similar lines to the original monastery, with help from the Government of India . There are now 3000 or more monks living in Sera, India and this community has also spread its missionary activities to several countries by establishing Dharma centres, propagating knowledge of Buddhism. Sera Monastery in Tibet and its counterpart in Mysore, India are noted for their debate sessions. The original Sera Monastery
6745-511: The northern outskirts of Lhasa , the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region . As built in 1419, it encompassed an area of 28 acres (11 ha). Its geographical location is at the base of Pubuchok mountain, also known as Tatipu Hill, located in the northern suburb of Lhasa City, which forms the watershed of the basins formed by Kyi Chi and Penpo Chu rivers. The monastery complex, encompassing 28 acres (11 ha) of land, housed several institutions in its precincts. The structures of notability were
6840-618: The old hermitage, which was destroyed during the Revolution. Below the hermitage are the Upper Tantric College (Gyuto) and Lower Tantric College (Gyu-me) of Lhasa). A further climb up the hill leads to caves where Tsongkhapa meditated. Sera Monastery that developed over the centuries into a renowned place of learning, which trained hundreds of scholars who attained name and fame in the Buddhist nations, has under its affiliation 19 hermitages, including four nunneries, which are all located in
6935-789: The prophecy of his guru by establishing the Sera Je as a seat of learning knowledge of the complete teachings and practices of the Mahayana tradition. King Nedong Dagpa Gyaltsen supported the noble venture with required finances. In 1419, he performed the foundation laying ceremony for construction of the monastery. Lama Tsongkhapa oversaw further details including installing sacred images, idols, and other objects of worship. The monastery soon came to be known as "the Seat of Theckchen ling ( Mahayana Tradition )". The 14th Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and sought asylum there. Starting from 18 March, Sera Jey Monastery
7030-466: The protector deities. One floor above this was the Namgyel Lhakhang and the last floor above this was the living quarters of the Dalai Lamas and teachers of Sera Je. The Ngakpa Tratsang, also spelled Ngaba Zhacang, was the smallest of the three colleges that was set up in the complex. It was a three storied building originally built in 1419 by Jetsun Kunkhen Lodroe Rinchen Senge. It was refurbished in
7125-404: The radical ཀ /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes ཀྲ /kra/ or རྐ /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/ is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript. ར /ra/ actually changes form when it
7220-597: The root श्रु śru , lit. ' hear ' in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is "any verse or stanza; a proverb, saying"; but in particular it refers to the 32- syllable verse, derived from the Vedic anuṣṭubh metre, used in the Bhagavad Gita and many other works of classical Sanskrit literature. In its usual form it consists of four pādas or quarter-verses, of eight syllables each, or (according to an alternative analysis) of two half-verses of 16 syllables each. The metre
7315-453: The script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. One aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as subscript and superscript forming consonant clusters . To understand how this works, one can look at
7410-768: The scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000–U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00–U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts: Slokas Shloka or śloka ( Sanskrit : श्लोक śloka , from
7505-489: The site was chosen because Tsongkhapa had a vision in which he saw the full text of Prajnaparamita 's 20 slokas on Shunyata captioned in the sky. This vision gave him a full insight into the Tsawasehrab (Fundamentals of Madhyamika or Shunyata ) text. Further, he also perceived the "vision of a rain like 'AA' characters descending from the sky". It was only 12 years later that one of his pupils, Jamchen Choje, fulfilled
7600-469: The site, although a former official of the Bari Lama's estate who had previously controlled the monastery initially objected to it being converted into Nyingma practice centre. Today the hermitage, still partly ruined, consists of five major sections; a main temple compound around a central courtyard with a temple, kitchen, and some of the monks’ living quarters, an extensive ruined terraced complex just south of
7695-510: The stanzas are ślokas of the anuṣṭubh type, and most of the rest are tristubh s. The anuṣṭubh is found in Vedic texts, but its presence is minor, and triṣṭubh and gāyatrī metres dominate in the Rigveda . A dominating presence of ślokas in a text is a marker that the text is likely post-Vedic. The traditional view is that this form of verse was involuntarily composed by Vālmīki ,
7790-836: The strength of the monks are said to be small. The Great Assembly Hall, the ‘Tsokchen' or 'Coqen Hall', dated to 1710, a four-story structure to the north east of the monastery, facing east, is where several religious rituals and rites are conducted. The hall measured an area of 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) built with 125 pillars (86 tall and 39 short columns) and was constructed by Lhazang Qan. The entry portico had ten columns. The five chapels in this building have statues or images of Maitreya , Shakyamuni , Arhats , Tsongkhapa, and Kwan-yin with one thousand hands and eleven faces. The ancient and delicately written scriptures ‘the Gangyur of Tripitaka’ also spelt ' Kangyur ' (dated 1410) in 105 volumes (original 108 volumes) written in Tibetan
7885-401: The surrounding allotted land for raising food crops for survival. Well established as an organised Monastery with dedicated efforts of the monks, an Assembly Prayer Hall that could accommodate 1500 monks was also completed in 1978. This Monastery is now the nodal monastery, with its affiliation to several smaller monasteries spread across various regions in Tibet; its popularity could be gauged by
7980-459: The translation of Buddhist scriptures emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters . As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa , there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects
8075-507: The vowel ཨུ /u/ is placed underneath consonants. Old Tibetan included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords , especially transcribed from the Sanskrit . The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as Balti , Chinese and Sanskrit , often has additional and/or modified graphemes taken from
8170-586: The western part has the well-known three colleges: the Sera Je Dratsang, the Sera Me Dratsang; and the Ngakpa Dratsang, all instituted by Tsongkhapa as monastic universities that catered to monks in the age range 8-70. All the structures within this complex formed a clockwise pilgrimage circuit, starting with the colleges (in the order stated), followed by the hall, the dwelling units and finally ending at
8265-504: The years, the monastery developed into a hermitage where about 6000 monks resided. The monastery was one of the finest locations in Tibet to witness the debate sessions, which were held according to a fixed schedule. The monastery belongs to the Gelug Order and was one of the largest in Lhasa. The history of the monastery is strongly connected to Master Lama Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the founder of
8360-472: The ‘Sixth-Month Fourth-Day (drug pa tshe bzhi)’ celebrations. The hermitage had smooth relationship with Sera all through its history so much so that every official monk of the hermitage enjoyed de facto status of a monk of the Hamdong Regional House ( Har gdong khang tshan ) of the Jé College also. The monastery also observes all ritualistic practices. Some special aspects of the temple complex are:
8455-400: Was built over an area of 1,600 square metres (17,000 sq ft) with 30 dwelling units. However, in 1761 lightning struck the main hall which was rebuilt in 1761. The hall, as finally refurbished, had 70 pillars (8 tall and 62 short pillars) which housed a galaxy of statues of Buddhist gurus with the main deity of Shakyamuni Buddha made in copper. The other Bodhisattvas enshrined along with
8550-497: Was destroyed and all resident monks also died in the bombardment done by the Chinese in 1959. Homdong Khangtsang, also spelt ‘Kamcuns’ in Tibetan language, are the main dwelling units or dormitories which house the monks of the monastery; there are thirty-three Kamcuns surrounding the central courtyard. The size of the Kamcuns varied, depending on the strength of monks housed. Monks of the same village are housed together; however each monk
8645-404: Was independent of Sera Monastery, and from 1960 to the mid-1980s it was controlled by the Chinese. It then came under the control of Sera, whose monks renovated it and are continuing its traditions. This temple is noted for its many shrines, and its blue and carved gold mantra in the hallway, inscribed with words meaning, "Hail to the jewel in the lotus". A number of stone relics were buried during
8740-628: Was initially a three storied building; a fourth floor was added in the 18th century by strengthening the building with a total of 100 columns. It had a statue of the Hayagriva (said to have been sculpted by Lodro Rinchen himself in gilded copper), also known popularly as Avalokiteśvara , which was considered the protective deity of the monastery. This wrathful deity was worshipped as dispeller of obstacles with healing powers. Tokden Yonten Gonpo, worshipped this deity first and on divine injunction initiated his son Kunkhepa, to follow this tradition. Kunkhepa, with
8835-414: Was originally developed c. 620 by Tibetan minister Thonmi Sambhota for King Songtsen Gampo . The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali , Nepali and Old Turkic . The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script . This writing system
8930-439: Was partially destroyed by King Langdharma in 841 AD during his campaign to destroy monastic Buddhism; it was rebuilt in the 11th century as a two-storied structure that housed 200 monks. Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) lived at the site as a hermit, and it eventually became a scholarly institution. The Fifth Dalai Lama was known to be fond of the monastery and funded the building of an upper floor for Pabonka. Before 1959, Pabonka
9025-464: Was subject to bombardment, which resulted in death of hundreds of monks (in 1959, the count of monks living in Sera Jey was 5629), apart from destruction of ancient texts and loss of innumerable, invaluable, ancient and antique works of art. Many of those who survived (monks and common people) this onslaught by the Chinese fled to India, under severe winter weather conditions, across the Himalayas . Following this mass exodus of people from Tibet (including,
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