Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

The Greater SeraSe ra

Our emphasis throughout this essay has been on the actual site of SeraSe ra and its environs. Before 1959, however, SeraSe ra was a much larger political and economic entity than it is today. The monastery, colleges, and even many regional houses, and lamabla ma residences, owned estates, pasture lands, and real estate (e.g., houses in LhasaLha sa). Moreover, the monastery, colleges and, sometimes, individual lamabla mas had proprietary rights over other, smaller monasteries called branch monasteries (yenlakgyi gönpayan lag gyi dgon pa). When all of this is taken into account, there emerges a vision of SeraSe ra as a network of institutions that encompasses a space much larger than that contained within the perimeter walls of the monastery. Since these will be treated under other subheadings, however, we are content just to mention this fact in passing.