This is the largest of Sera’s colleges, generally accessed from a western side entrance. It has a breathtaking main hall, hung with thangkas and lit by shafts of light from high windows. Several chörtens hold the remains of Sera’s most famous lamas. To the left of the hall is a passage leading, via a chapel dedicated to the Past, Present and Future Buddhas, to the most sacred of Sera Monastery’s chapels, the Chapel of Tamdrin.
Tamdrin (Hayagriva) is a wrathful meditational deity whose name means ‘horse headed’. He is the chief protective deity of Sera, and there is often a long line of shuffling pilgrims waiting to touch their – and especially their children’s – foreheads to his feet in respect. Monks sell holy threads, protective amulets and sacred pills here, as well as red slips of inscribed paper, which pilgrims buy to burn for the recently deceased. The ornate brass shrine recalls the temples of the Kathmandu Valley. Take a look at the weapons, hats and masks hanging from the ceiling. There is a second chapel for him on the upper floor, but there he is in another aspect with nine heads.
The first chapel to the rear of the hall is devoted to a lovely statue of Sakyamuni, seated below a fine canopy and ceiling mandala. Pilgrims climb steps to the right to touch his left leg. The next two chapels are dedicated to Tsongkhapa, with Sakyamuni and Öpagme (Amitabha); and to Jampelyang, flanked by Jampa and another Jampelyang. From here head to the upstairs chapels.
To the northeast of Sera Je is Sera’s debating courtyard . There is usually debating practise here on weekday afternoons from around 3pm to 5pm, which provides a welcome relief from peering at Buddhist iconography. You will hear it (with much clapping of hands to emphasise points) as you approach Sera Je. Foreign photographers circle the site like vultures at a sky burial.
