Sera Monastery 色拉寺

About Sera Monastery

Founded in 1419, the monastery developed as a centre of Buddhist study, with the Je and Me colleges devoted to philosophy and the Ngakpa college to tantric ritual. Its assembly hall, college courtyards and chapels make the educational structure visible in the buildings themselves. Rather than treating the complex as one hall, follow a short sequence through the public areas and notice how teaching, communal worship and smaller shrines occupy different spaces.

The Great Assembly Hall (措钦大殿), built in 1710, occupies the northeastern part of the complex and serves as its principal gathering and administrative space. Its scripture hall rises through two storeys, with tall central columns creating a skylit area and shorter columns defining lower spaces for statues. The roof follows a Chinese hipped-and-gabled form and is covered with gilded copper tiles.

The wider complex covers about 115,000 square metres. Its stone-and-timber buildings have earth-covered roofs and white walls topped by purple-black decorative vegetation. Between the main buildings are khamtsen residences, organised around groups of monks from the same home regions. Sera is responsible for nineteen hermitages, including four nunneries. It became a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in 1982.

What to look for

• The Great Assembly Hall and its columned entrance, surrounded by the monastery’s college buildings.
• The Je and Me college areas, which express Sera’s tradition of philosophical study.

The surrounding area

Palaces, monasteries, museums and a working old city with a strong tea-house culture.

Location & getting there

Getting to Sera Monastery

Approach Sera at the foot of the hills in northern Lhasa, north of the Jokhang and the old town.

• Arrange the return from the monastery entrance; confirm the public route through the college areas on arrival.