Sera Monastery - History

History

The history of the monastery is strongly connected to Master Lama Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the founder of the Gelukpa Order, the much venerated and highly learned guru in Buddhist scriptures. It was under his divine tutelage that his disciple Jetsun Kunkhen Lodroe Rinchen Senge established the Sera Jey Monastery complex in 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 narrated for how the site was chosen was a clairvoyant vision that Tsongkhapa had in which he saw the full text of Prajnaparamita's 20 slokas on Shunyata captioned in the sky. This psychic spell 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 the prophesy of his guru by establishing the Sera Je as a seat of learning knowledge of the complete teachings and practices of the Mahayana tradition.

Providentially, the then King Nedong Dagpa Gyaltsen supported the noble venture with required finances and also, in 1419, performed the foundation laying ceremony for construction of the monastery. Further detailing with regard to the building development including installing sacred images/idols and other objects of worship were completed according to the supreme wishes of great Lama Tsongkhapa. The monastery soon came to be known as "the Seat of Theckchen ling (Mahayana Tradition)". Another version for the name 'Sera' that came to be prefixed with 'Monastery' was its location that was surrounded by raspberry shrubs called 'Sewa' in Tibetan, that formed like a 'Rawa' in Tibetan, meaning "Fence".