Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Location and Layout

The ruins at the site of Sera Gönpasar Hermitage (Sera Gönpasar RitröSe ra dgon pa gsar ri khrod)

The words gönpa sardgon pa gsar mean “new monastery.” The site obviously received its name when a monastery or hermitage (ritröri khrod) was first built there, and then the name simply stuck. The hermitage belonged to the lamabla mas of the GönpasarDgon pa gsar incarnation lineage. It was founded as a GelukDge lugs hermitage by the first Gönpasar incarnation Ngawang Döndrup (Gönpasar Kutreng Dangpo Ngawang DöndrupDgon pa gsar sku phreng dang po ngag dbang don grub).1 It seems that there were thirteen fully ordained monks that formed the ritual core of the institution before 1959.2

Today the entire site is in ruins, and while the shapes of certain buildings can be discerned from the foundations and fragments of walls that remain, we have no idea of what these various structures actually were. The site contains at least one large stūpa, and many carved boulders and/or self-arisen images (rangjönrang byon). Apart from this, there is little more that we can say about this hermitage at the present time.

The ruins of a large stūpa at the site.

A large boulder with carvings or self-arisen images on its surface.

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[1] The entry for GönpasarDgon pa gsar in Bshes gnyen tshul khrims, Lhasé Gönto Rinchen PunggyenLha sa’i dgon tho rin chen spungs rgyan [A Catalogue of the Monasteries of Lhasa: A Heap of Jewels] (Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2001), 95-98, appears to be a description not of SeraSe ra GönpasarDgon pa gsar but of Drepung’Bras spungs GönpasarDgon pa gsar, a hermitage with the same name but affiliated with Drepung’Bras spungs.

[2] Lhasé GöntoLha sa’i dgon tho, 95.

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