As was prophesied by Lord Buddha that Buddhism would flourish infinitely in Tibet. A prestigious Drepung monastic university-one of the three largest Tibetan monastic universities- which is more popularly known as the second Nalanda University, was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Chojey Tashi Palden…
As was prophesied by Lord Buddha that Buddhism would flourish infinitely in Tibet. A prestigious Drepung monastic university-one of the three largest Tibetan monastic universities- which is more popularly known as the second Nalanda University, was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Chojey Tashi Palden – a close disciple of Je-Tsong Kha Pa. While admonishing his disciple to found a new monastic university, Je Tsong Kha Pa presented the highly treasured sacred conch to him and prophesied that this new university would surpass the one founded by Je-Tsong Kha Pa himself. With the passage of time, seven highly learned and scholars from Drepung University established seven colleges of which the largest was Drepung Loseling College. Drepung Loseling College has been Alma Mater for numerous highly learned lamas like Khechen Lekden, Jamyang Gawe Lodoe, Panchen Sonam Dakpa, over eighty abbots of the monastery, about thirty Gaden Throne Holders from Je Monlam Pel- the eighth Gaden Throne Holder to Je Thupten Nyima Lungtok Tenzin Norbu- the hundred and second Gaden Throne Holder, His eminence Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Professor Samdong Rinpoche-the former prime minister of Tibetan Exile govt.- directly elected by the people, to name a few.
Drepung Monastery had seven colleges, of which the largest was the Drepung Losel Ling College. Losel Ling, established by Acharya Lekden, a direct disciple of Jamyang Chojey, housed some six to nine thousand students at various periods in its history. It, in turn, was comprised of twenty- three (now twenty five) departments, each of which represents a different region of Central Asia, thus ensuring that students would retain their mother tongue and regional affiliation throughout their long training period away from home. This allows students to teach what they have learnt, in their native dialect when they eventually return to their native place.
However, following the political upheaval in Tibet, only about 305 monks managed to flee into India and in accordance with the supreme vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a temporary monastic college was re-established at Bauxa and then was relocated to Karnataka State in 1971. Since that time many more Tibetan youths have fled Tibet in order to seek traditional education. Today, the student body in Drepung Loseling College in India has grown to approximately 3000 in number.
Over the years Drepung Loseling College in India has transformed considerably to meet the challenges of their new environment. In addition to producing hundreds of graduate students, it has received and assisted numerous scholars engaged in Buddhist studies and research, participated in dozens of international conferences, and sent many of its graduate monks to study and teach in Western universities.
Loseling’s Educational System
The principal educational tool used in all three of these great monastic universities was the technique of ‘Tsen-nyi’ or reflective enquiry, a highly disciplined form of debate applied for the purpose of penetrating into the deeper meanings of the subjects under study. Students would generally have two or three classes each day, and for many hours during the evening and following morning would debate the material that had been covered in order to analyze and experiment with it. Each month would see the “Night-Long Debate”, in which each class would get to demonstrate its talents and progress in front of the entire assembly; and each winter would witness the six-week Inter-monastery debate meet, in which the three universities would train and debate together, thus standardizing their programs.
The central curriculum in all the three monastic universities was the five great philosophical treatises of classical Buddhist India. Each college studied these from three fundamental perspectives: the central Indian treatises; the commentaries of the early monastic university masters, i.e., Tsongkhapa ( 1357-1419), Gyaltsapjey (1364-1432), Khedrupjey (1385-1438), and the First Dalai Lama (1391-1475); and their individual college manuals. Loseling College mostly used the manual written by Panchen Sonam Dakpa (1478-1554), the tutor of the Third Dalai Lama (1543- 1588). In addition, reference would be made to numerous other treatises and manuals by later commentators, as well as to the writings of contemporary teachers. For example, in the Drepung Loseling refugee College in India, the textbooks by the late Khensur Pema Gyaltsen, who passed away in the 1980s, are tremendously popular.
The Five Great Treatises
The five Indian treatises constituting the main body of the curriculum have to be memorized by all aspiring students prior to their admission to the formal study program. This ensures that during the actual coursework they can concentrate on unpacking the deeper meanings of the fundamental texts by devoting their time to the associated textbooks, commentaries, manuals and oral guidelines
These five subjects, together with their associated Indian treatises, are as follows:
- Prajnaparamita/” The Perfection of Wisdom”. The principal textbook, written in the mid-fourth century, covers the implicit content of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. It provides a general presentation of the philosophical and psychological principles in the process of achieving inner well-being and maturation, which are states of psychical growth known in Buddhist Sanskrit diction as Moksha or liberation and buddhahood.
Students of Drepung Losel Ling generally dedicate seven years to this study.
- Madhyamika or “The Middle View”. This involves a specific presentation and critical analysis of the fundamental nature of phenomena, the compatibility of the absence of a findable, solid entity within things with the reality of phenomena’s valid conventional functionality.
This subject is studied for a period of three years.
- Pramana or “ Valid Inquiry”. This involves an investigation of the underlying principles of a number of disciplines, including epistemology and linguistics, the nature of the mind and its functions, the philosophy of perception and its influence upon knowledge, the role of logical reasoning in testing the validity of personal understanding, and so forth. In all three monastic universities pramana is generally studied for six weeks a year throughout the twenty year training program.
- Vinaya or “The Philosophy of Ethics”. Here the fundamental Indian texts used are the Vinaya-sutras or Discourses on the Philosophy of Ethics, by the Buddha, and Fundamental Treatises on the Philosophy of Ethics, by Acharya Gunaprabha. The study period generally lasts for four years.
- Abhidharma or “Treasury of Knowledge”. This involves a survey and re-contextualization of the numerous metaphysical and psychological doctrines encountered during the students’ many years of prior study , and in a sense is the summation of the philosophical training. Abhidharma is generally studied for two years.
As a preparation to the study of these five fundamental subjects, students of all three monastic universities, and thus also of Drepung Loseling College, would begin their training with approximately a year each on three preliminary courses: “Collected Topcs” which is an introduction to metaphysical analysis; “Science of Mind” which introduces the students to the basic Buddhist concepts on the nature of mind and mental functions; and “ Science of Reasoning” the methods of logical inquiry and analysis.
Thus the formal education in the three monastic universities generally required nineteen years of course work. In Drepung Losel Ling, this would be followed by at least one more year of review, during which the student would have to sit for examinations at each of the twenty five departments. Hence the full training would require approximately twenty years.
The general monk students are primarily engaged in studying the entire text of Buddhist Sutra and Tantra while, besides focusing on Buddhist philosophy as the main subjects, the younger monk students are given the opportunity to study other subjects like Tibetan grammar, science, English and Chinese language up to class X. Our printing press unit and library have also made remarkable contribution in printing out many of the rare texts authored by Indian and Tibetan scholars and to make them easily available for the monk students as important reference. The monastery also offers training through handicraft center and computer section to all the interested monks of the monastery.
Losel Shedup Ling, a Dharma Centre of Loseling Monastery based in Atlanta, USA has been actively engaged not only in making arrangement for monastic tour groups to USA, Europe and other countries, but also takes it as a privilege to give Dharma teaching and to introduce Tibetan tradition to all the interested people, while Loseling Nangten Dharma Centre and Loling Kunphen Dharma Centre in Taiwan have endeavoured and is relentlessly making effort to teach Tibetan Buddhism and tradition to all the interested Chinese friends. The monastic clinic which is directly under the aegis and financial aid of the Loling Kunphen Dharma center in Taiwan has been set up to render medical service and dispense medicines to all monks and nuns free of cost and to the lay people irrespective of caste, creed and colour on concession rate. In the interest of public convenience and service including the monks’ community, the monastery holds the distributorship of HPCL LPG cooking gas and has been rendering service to the local public by way of the sale of refilled cooking gas cylinders to the customers without any profit motive.
Last but not the least, in furtherance of the supreme vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that of our exiled govt. based in Dharamsala, the monastery has been striving to make contribution towards achieving development in spiritual, political and other spheres of life that are aimed at benefiting people all over the world.
We, Drepung Loseling Monastic College along with all the Tibetan Diaspora in our own small ways, remains highly indebted and expresses sincere appreciation to our host, the Indian people and the govt. of India, and to all the international Tibetan Supporters and well-wishers for rendering their invaluable and unstinting support to all our noble causes.
Thank you.
Website: www.loselingmonastery.org Email: loselingadmoffice@rediffmail.com
Phone: +91-8301-245607, 245699 Fax: 245647
༄༅། །རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པའི་དཔལ་གྱི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་སྨོན་ལམ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་བོད་གངས་ཅན་གྱི་རི་བོ་དགེ་ལྡན་པའི་གདན་ས་ཆེན་པོ་གསུམ་གྱི་ཡ་གྱལ་དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲས་དཀར་སྤུངས་པའི་གླིང་ཕྱག་འདེབས་པ་པོ་རྗེ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན་གྱིས་རང་གི་བུ་སློབ་གཙོ་བོ་བདུན་འཆད་ཉན་པར་བསྐོས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སོ་སོར་འཆད་ཉན་གནང་བར་བརྟེན། སྒོ་མང་དང་། བློ་གླིང་། བདེ་ཡངས། ཤག་སྐོར། ཐོས་བསམ་གླིང་ངམ་རྒྱལ་བ། འདུལ་བ། སྔགས་པ་བཅས་གྲྭ་ཚང་བདུན་བྱུང་བའི་ཡ་གྱལ་མཁས་མང་བློ་གསལ་བྱེ་བའི་གླིང་གྲྭ་ཚང་ནི། མཁན་ཆེན་ལེགས་ལྡན་པས་འཆད་ཉན་མཛད་པར་བརྟེན་ནས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་འཆད་ཉན་འཕེལ་ཞིང་སྡེ་བ་སྣེའུ་ཟུར་པ་སོགས་བསྟན་པའི་སྦྱིན་བདག་དུ་མས་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་སྦྱར་བ་ལས་བོད་རབ་བྱུང་ལྔ་པའི་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་བཅུ་བཞི་པའི་ནང་ཟུར་འཛུགས་མཛད་པའི་ཆོས་སྡེ་ཞིག་ཡིན། གྲྭ་ཚང་འདིར་མཁན་ཐོག་དང་པོ་ལྡན་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལེགས་ལྡན་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་མཁན་པོ་ལས་ཐོག་སྤོམ་ར་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཆེན་པོ་རྗེ་བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བར་དུ་མཁན་རབས་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་ལྷག་གིས་བསྐྱངས་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཡོད་ཅིང་། གཞན་ཡང་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདིའི་ཁོངས་ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ནས་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་བརྒྱད་པ་ཆོས་རྗེ་སྨོན་ལམ་དཔལ་བ་ནས་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་བརྒྱ་དང་གཉིས་པ་རི་རྫོང་སྲས་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཉི་མ་ལུང་རྟོགས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ནོར་བུའི་བར་དགའ་ལྡན་གསེར་ཁྲི་འཛིན་པ་སུམ་ཅུ་ཙམ་དང་། ༸གོང་ས་༸སྐྱབས་མགོན་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་བཞི་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་སྐུ་བགྲེས་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་གླིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་བླ་སྤྲུལ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་ལྷག་དང་། བཀའ་རབ་འབྱམས་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོ་བྱུང་ཡོད། དུས་འགྱུར་གོང་གི་ལོ་རབས་ལྔ་བཅུ་པའི་ནང་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདིར་དགེ་འདུན་འདུ་འཕེལ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང་སྟེ་དགེ་འདུན་པའི་ཞལ་གྲངས་ཆིག་བརྒལ་བ་རྒན་རབས་པ་དག་གི་ངག་རྒྱུན་དུ་གླེང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༥༩ ལོར་༸གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གི་ཆིབས་ཞབས་སྟོན་འཁོར་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་བཙན་བྱོལ་དུ་ཕེབས་རྗེས་རྒྱ་གར་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་བྷང་ག་ལའི་མངའ་ཁོངས་སྦག་ས་ཞེས་པར་སྦག་ས་ནང་བསྟན་ཆོས་རིག་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་ཐོས་བསམ་ཐར་འདོད་གླིང་གསར་འཛུགས་སྐབས་བློ་གླིང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་དགེ་འདུན་པའི་ཞལ་གྲངས་སུམ་བརྒྱ་ལྷག་ཙམ་ཡིན། ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༦༩ ལོར་སྦག་སའི་ཆོས་སྒར་རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ཀར་ཎ་ཊ་ཀར་སྤོ་ཞུགས་སྐབས་བློ་གླིང་གྲྭ་ཚང་ལ་དགེ་འདུན་ཞལ་གྲངས་ཉིས་བརྒྱ་སུམ་ཅུ་ལྷག་ཅིག་ལས་མེད། ལོ་རབས་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་པའི་རྗེས་ནས་བོད་གཞིས་དང་། ཕྱི་ཡུལ་རྒྱ་བལ་འབྲུག་ཁུལ་གྱི་བོད་རིགས། ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཁོངས་བཅས་ནས་ཆར་རྗེས་ཀྱི་ཤ་མོ་བརྡོལ་བ་ཇི་བཞིན་གྲྭ་རྒྱུན་རབ་ཏུ་འཕེལ་ཏེ་དེང་སྐབས་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདིའི་ཁོངས་མཚན་གཞུང་ཡོད་པའི་གྲྭ་གྲངས་སུམ་སྟོང་བརྒལ་ཡོད་ལ་རྒྱུན་ལྡན་ཐོས་བསམ་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་མཁན་ཉིས་སྟོང་ལྔ་བརྒྱ་ལྷག་ཡོད། ད་ལྟའི་བྱེས་འབྱོར་བློ་གླིང་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདི་ནི་ཚ་བ་ཁམས་ཚན་སོགས་ཁམས་ཚན་ཁག་ཉེར་ལྔ་ལས་གྲུབ་ཡོད་ཅིང་། གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་སྡེ་ཚན་ལ་གནའ་དེང་ཤེས་རིག་སྦྱང་བྱར་ཡོད་པའི་སློབ་གྲྭ་དང་། རྒྱ་བོད་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཁག་ལྟ་ཀློག་དང་དཔར་སྐྲུན་བྱ་ཡུལ་དཔེ་མཛོད་ཁང་། གློག་ཀླད་སྡེ་ཚན། ལག་ཤེས་སྡེ་ཚན། རིས་མེད་གྲྭ་བཙུན་ཁག་ལ་རིན་མེད་སྨན་སྦྱིན་དང་ཉེ་འཁོར་རྒྱ་གར་ཡུལ་མི་དང་གཞིས་ཆགས་ཁག་ལ་ཕྱེད་བཅག་སྨན་སྦྱིན་ཐོབ་ཡུལ་བློ་གསལ་ཀུན་ཕན་སྨན་ཁང་། གྲྭ་ཚང་ཁག་དང་གཞིས་གྲོང་དུད་ཁྱིམ་རྣམས་ལ་སྟབས་བདེ་མཁོ་བེད་ཆེ་བའི་གཞུང་འབྲེལ་རྡོ་ཞུན་རླངས་རྫས་ལས་ཁུངས། ཨ་རིར་ཡོད་པའི་ཆོས་ཚོགས་བློ་གསལ་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་གླིང་། ཐེ་ཝན་བློ་གསལ་གླིང་ནང་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཚོགས། ཐེ་ཝན་བློ་གླིང་ཀུན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཚོགས་བཅས་ཡོད།སྲིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ནས་ཀྱང་བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་མང་མོས་འོས་བསྡུའི་ལམ་ནས་འདེམས་ཐོན་བྱུང་བའི་མང་ཐོས་འདུལ་བ་འཛིན་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་མོ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མཁས་དབང་ཟམ་གདོང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་བཀའ་བློན་ཁྲི་ཟུར་དང་བཀའ་བློན། སྤྱི་འཐུས། ཚོགས་སྡེ་ཁག་གི་འགན་འཛིན། ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གྲྭའི་སློབ་དཔོན། གསུང་སྒྱུར་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སོགས་ལས་གནས་ཆེ་ཕྲ་དུ་མའི་སྲི་ཞུ་བ་མང་པོ་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདིའི་ཁོངས་ནས་བྱུང་ཡོད་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་མདོར་བསྡུས་སུ།