The Hermitages of Sera (se ra’i ri khrod)

A hermitage (ri khrod) is a small monastic residence found in an isolated mountain location. Hermitages begin as the mountain homes of monks, nuns, or pious laypersons who seek the peace and quiet of isolated sites so as to engage in intensive religious practice. Within a few generations of their founding, however, hermitages often transform, changing from the meditation retreats of individuals into communal ritual monasteries. They also usually grow, sometimes becoming large and important monasteries in their own right. In this portion of the Sera Project website, you will learn more about the hermitages related to Sera Monastery.

Among the three great seats of learning of the Dge lugs school of Tibetan Buddhism – Dga’ ldan, ’Bras spungs, and Se ra – Se ra is the one renowned for its hermitages. At least nineteen such institutions are found in the mountains behind and around Se ra. Under the auspices of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, José Cabezón and a group of his graduate students spent the summer of 2004 compiling information about the history, architecture, art, and religious life of the Se ra hermitages. The pages that follow are the result of this research.

The Interactive Map provides you with a visual interface for accessing different kinds of information – from the relative location of the hermitages to the topography of the landscape around them. The map also allows you to explore each of the hermitages through individual site maps that are linked to images, and it provides a database entry of important information about each institution.

The Introduction explains what hermits are, how the hermitage tradition of Se ra began, how it changed over time, and the challenges it faces today. It also gives you an idea of what the daily life of a hermitage monk was like in former times, and what it is like today.

Overview of Hermitages

Finally, you can read detailed descriptions of the individual hermitages and learn about the history of each institution by clicking on a given hermitage in the list that follows:

• Chupzang Nunnery (Chu bzang dgon)
• Drakri Hermitage (Brag ri ri khrod)
• Garu Nunnery (Ga ru dgon pa)
• Jokpo Hermitage (’Jog po ri khrod)
• Keutsang Hermitage (Ke’u tshang ri khrod)
• Keutsang East Hermitage (Ke’u tshang shar ri khrod)
• Keutsang West Hermitage (Ke’u tshang nub ri khrod)
• Khardo Hermitage (Mkhar do ri khrod)
• Negodong Nunnery (Gnas sgo gdong dgon pa)
• Nenang Nunnery (Gnas nang ri khrod)
• Pabongkha Hermitage (Pha bong kha ri khrod)
• Panglung Hermitage (Spang lung ri khrod)
• Purbuchok Hermitage (Phur bu lcog ri khrod)
• Rakhadrak Hermitage (Ra kha brag ri khrod)
• Sera Chöding Hermitage (Se ra chos sdings ri khrod)
• Sera Gönpasar Hermitage (Se ra dgon pa gsar ri khrod)
• Sera Utsé Hermitage (Se ra dbu rtse ri khrod)
• Takten Hermitage (Rtags bstan ri khrod)
• Trashi Chöling Hermitage (Bkra shis chos gling ri khrod)

Acknowledgements

The fieldwork for the Sera Hermitages Project was funded by a grant from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), Academic Senate, Committee on Research. Three graduate students in the Religious Studies Department at UCSB – Alex Catanese, David Cooper and Michael Cox – served as research assistants during the work in Lhasa in 2004. David Germano, Director of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, continues to be an unstinting supporter of the Sera Project, as well as a valued intellectual conversation partner and advisor. Buchung, of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, greatly aided the Sera Project team in a number of logistical areas. Monks of Sera served as guides to several of the hermitage sites. The technical staff – David Newman, Will Rourk, and Dan Haig of UVa and Drölkar of Tibet University – spent many hours creating the infrastructure that has made the map possible, an amazing achievement. David Cooper edited and proofread the Introduction and individual hermitage pages. Zoran Lazovic and Thomas Nguyen (both at UCSB) and Steve Weinberger (UVa) were together responsible for creating and proofing the principal XML documents, while Than Garson (UVa) was responsible for rendering the XML both online and into PDF format. Work on the technical aspects of the project was funded in large part by two U.S. Department of Education grants under the International Research and Studies Program (IRSP) and Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) programs and the U.S. Department of State’s Tibet Development, Professional, Educational and Cultural Exchange Projects program. A Web Minigrant from Instructional Improvement at UCSB, and the guidance of Georges Michaels of that same office, allowed this process to move forward. José Cabezón wishes to take this opportunity to thank each of these individuals and institutions for their help.