Re-establishment of Sera Jey Monastery from 1959

Ever since Sera Jey Monastery grew and became known to be a great place of Learning, from the time of its great founder & masters in its early history, to subsequent periods spanning decades & centuries to this present age; its prominence & distinction spread far & wide across to India, China and other surrounding Buddhist influenced nations; scores of renowned and saintly scholars were graduated from this Monastery. A historical records indicates that the Monastery's total population strength of monks in 1959 before the communist Chinese troops destruction & persecution of Monastery & monks, at around 5629 monks.

The event of 1959, that witnessed the invasion of Tibet by the communist China, was the darkest period in the History of Tibet and its religious faith - Buddhism. It brought the near end of centuries old Monastic Culture and Practice, by the indiscriminate destruction of monasteries and persecution of monks. And Sera Jey Monastery was one of the most severely affected from this spiritual & cultural genocide.

Sensing the immense threat to the existence, survival and freedom of right to worship the traditional & cultural faith of Buddhism, an integral part & a way of life of Tibetans for centuries, His Holiness The Dalai Lama devotedly acting on the responsibility of His leadership as the temporal and spiritual head of Tibet, took the most tough & noble decision when He took flight to India. Followed by many thousands of Tibetans in His footsteps, who are fortunate to escape the communist Chinese troop's ruthless dragnet to check any Tibetans from leaving Tibet. Few hundred of Sera Jey members comprising of lamas, geshes and monks were fortunately able to escape to India.

Rehabilitation and Restoration

On reaching India in 1959, under the leadership of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the members of Sera Jey Monastery along with escaped monks of all the four different Monasteries under the four Orders of Tibetan Buddhism, were rehabilitated at a special camp at Bhaksa in the state of West Bengal. This was especially intended by His Holiness concern over the fate of Tibet's culture & religion, which has abruptly come under the terrible threat to its very survival from the appalling cultural genocide perpetrated by the invading communist Chinese at Tibet; and in his visionary effort to preserve and resurrect the unique culture, religion & identity of Tibet in a land of refuge, away from the reach of communist Chinese brutal oppression.

Hence this special rehabilitation of monks, about 1500 no in total from the four Buddhist Orders, was to program for the preservation of our traditional culture and religion in the very first stage. And secondly, from this existing human resource, to develop & prepare for the promotion and education of the younger & new Tibetan generation that will take root in India. At the rehab camp, all the monks were chiefly engaged in learning & teaching Buddhist Text & Philosophy. The younger monks were given special couching on Tibetan language & literature. For a period of 10 years the monks engaged in various religious and educational activities in a complete new environment & life, amidst struggling with the unadepted harsh climate that has inflicted large no of contagious lung infections, where quite many no of them succumbed to it.

Re-establishment at Bylakuppe

After almost 10 years of this special task program aimed for preservation & preparation of a knowledgeable human resource, in 1970 the group of 197 Sera Jey monks with 103 of Sera Mey monks was moved to a special site within the resettlement of Bylakuppe in Mysore District, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, for re-establishing the Sera Monastery, under the patronage of H.H. The Dalai Lama and the Central & State Government of India. A forestland area of 225 acres, measuring ¾ acres in ratio per monk were given to the two monasteries. For Sera Jey Monastery the share for 193 monks were given 147. ¾ acres.

The Indian Government sponsored 38 one-room tiled houses for the overall 300 monks of the two Monasteries, with 24 for Sera Jey and 14 for Sera Mey. The monks did all the construction labour. Also the surrounding area of 225 acres bulldozed were cleared by the monks of the two monasteries, and made available for cultivation. Cultivation was done on these lands during the onset of monsoon rainfall season, and there was one harvest in a year, which was then the only resource and means of survival to the entire monks. In the initial years, the monks were more or less obliged to engage for their livelihood & survival.

Each & every individual monk put up their best effort & time to create & harvest resource for the survival of the community in the initial stage, that laid the strong foundation for the development and establishment of a well organised Monastery.

The first Assembly Prayer Hall of the Monastery at Bylakuppe was built in 1976 and completed by the end of 1978. The Prayer Hall has a capacity to hold an assembly of 1500 monks, which was the total no of monks present at the Monastery then. It was inaugurated in the year 1979. Prior to this first Assembly Prayer Hall, a smaller one with asbestos sheet roofing has been built which was used until then.