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You can visit two of the three most important monasteries in Lhasa in One Day, Drepung and Sera.
About half day tour to Drepung
Duration: 1 Day (Starts from9:00 am, finishes around6:00 pm.)
Tour Type: private tour.
Attractions: Drepung monastery, Sera monastery.
Dining: Lunch.
Accommodation: included.
Service: Hotel pick-up&drop-off service, private vehicle and Tibetan English-speaking tour guide.
Itinerary Start from the hotel, visit the Drepung monastery and Sera monstery.
Pick up at the hotel, take a deep visit to the biggest and most famous monastery in Tibetan area, Drepung monastery. In the afternoon, take a visit to another famous monastery, Sera monastery. After the tour, we will drop you off at your hotel.
About half day tour to DrepungDrepung Monastery was firstly built in 1416 by Jamyang Chojey who was a direct disciple of Je Tsongkhapa and the founder of Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism. It housed 7,700 monks in its heyday. It was known for its high standards of academic study, and was called the Nalanda of Tibet, a reference to the great Buddhist monastic university of India.
It was said that in late 1930s Drepung was divided into four colleges, each housing monks from a different locality. As a university along the lines of Oxford or Sorbonne in the Middle Ages, its colleges have different emphases, teaching lineages and geographical affiliations. Today its population is much smaller, with merely a few hundred monks. However, the institution has continued its tradition.
What’s more, the monastery houses many cultural relics, which makes it more superb. Statues of Manjushri Bodhisattva, and Sitatapatra found on the first story of the Coqen Hall, rare sutras on the second story and Jamyang Qoigy’s conch shell given by Tsong Khapa on the third one, all add to the wonder of the monastery. Exquisite statues of Tsong Khapa, Kwan-yin Bodhisttva, Manjushri Bodhisattva, Amitayus, and Jamyang Qoigyi in other sutra halls, as well as flowery murals on walls also fully present the wisdom of Tibetan people.
Drepung Monastery
About half day tour to SeraSera Monastery is also one of the three principal Gelukpa monasteries built in Lhasa. Its layout is very beautiful with cobbled alleyways, temples and colleges. It was founded in 1419 by Shakya Yeshe, a disciple of Tsong Kapa. Located northern part of Lhasa, it once housed to more than 5,000 monks.
The highlight of visiting the monastery will be watching a monks’ debating in the shady courtyard behind its main temple. Every day, hundreds of red-robed monks assemble in small groups and practice their debating skills. It is a highly entertaining spectacle, during which they strike poses not dissimilar to hip hop rappers. They clap, turn, snap fingers, whoop, holler and throw their prayer beads about. In most cases, one monk sits on the floor, while another one stands, arguing about Buddhist rituals – immensely enjoying their debates. The spectacle is just so fun-filled and high energy. It’s a bit like a Sicilian market place, or a football match, increasing in volume all the time, and some of the monks are really good showmen, sometimes mischievously involving you in their debates, as if trying to get you onto their side.
the Sera Monastery
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