Sera Monastery

Overview
Sera Monastery is one of the six main monastery of Gelug Sect in Tibetan Buddhism. Together with Drepung monastery and Gandan monastery, Lhasa's three monastery are the latest one built. The temple is located at the foot of serawuzi mountain, 3km away from Lhasa, surrounded by willow forests. Since ancient times, it has been a place where eminent monks and living Buddhas preached, surrounded by many small monastery. In the East and south of the monastery, there are pupupujue monastery, miqiongreniku monastery, gongbasa monastery, pabenggang monastery, Zaxi Qulin monastery, Qusang monastery, Gali nunnery monastery; behind the monastery, there are zhukangrique monastery, selaqiding monastery, etc.

Main Structure
Cuoqin Hall
Cuoqin hall is the largest Hall of Sela monestery and the management center of religious affairs. It was built in 1710 under the direct sponsorship of Lhasa Khan, a descendant of Gushi Khan (1582-1654), who was in power from 1705 to 1717. The main hall is located in the northeast of sera temple. It is four stories high and consists of square in front of the hall, sutra hall and five Buddha halls.

Jizha Cang Hall
Jizhacang is one of the largest halls in sera monestery, with an area of 1702 square meters, second only to the Cuoqin hall. It was first built in 1435 and was founded by gongjiuluozhen renqinsenge. Jizhacang is four stories high, and there are 100 stone pillars in the Sutra hall alone. Thangkas, umbrella covers and curtains are hung in the Sutra hall. Biographies of Sakyamuni and various Dharma protectors are painted on the walls around the hall.

Maizhacang Hall
Maizhacang is the early building of Sera monestery, founded in 1419. It is said that the original palace was destroyed by lightning and was rebuilt by Gongqin qianqu Pemba in 1761. The area is 1620 square meters. In the Sutra hall, there are 8 long pillars and 62 short pillars. The main bronze statues are the Buddha of the future, wuliangshou Buddha, pharmacist Buddha, Miaoyin Bodhisattva, zongkaba master and apprentice, seventh Bodhisattva, zongkaba master and apprentice, seventh Dalai, the third generation of zamolin living Buddha (gongjuedan bergenzan) and pabangka living Buddha on both sides.

Collection of cultural relics
There are a large number of cultural relics in sera monestery, such as Buddha statues, Thangka, scriptures, magic tools, and offering utensils, which are extremely precious. According to the history of Ming Dynasty, When Sakyamuni returned to Tibet from Beijing in the 14th year of Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1416 AD), the emperor granted "Buddhist scriptures, Buddha statues, Dharma sticks, robes, silk and gold and silver wares", including 108 letters of the Tripitaka Sutra (engraved with Zhu) and the eighteen Arhats and four heavenly kings carved on sandalwood;

Legend
There are two opinions on the origin of sera monestery
1) During the foundation laying and construction of the monestery, there was a fierce hailstorm. Hailstorm was pronounced as "Sala" in Tibetan, so the monestery was named "Sera Monestery", meaning "Hail Monestery";
2) The monestery is built in a place where wild rose flowers are in full bloom, so it is named "Sera Monestery". The Tibetan pronunciation of wild rose is also "Sera". The temple is called "Sera Mahayana Monestery".

Information
Admission Fee: CNY 50
Opening Hours: 09:00-16:00
Visit time: 2-3 Hours
Best time to visit: Mar-Oct