The site: http://www.tibet.org/glow/seraje/seraje3.html
gives an short overview about the lifestories of THE LAMAS OF SERA JE MONASTERY

Geshe Nyingje Rabyang
There were 6,000 monasteries in Tibet before 1959 - all destroyed. In Sera Je, we had lots of old culture. We had gold and silver religious objects - they took away all these things. Out of millions of woodblocks [traditionally used for printing religious texts], only a few were left. And books, there were lots of books destroyed. We built up these things over the course of about two thousand years. And the Chinese finished it at once.
I was at the old Sera Je. I was 24 then; now I’m 61. There were about 10,000 monks when I was there. On March 12-13, 1959, the Chinese came with tanks and bombarded the monastery. Many, many monks were killed. I left the night of the bombing and immediately escaped to India. I went through eastern India. We were put in camps in Assam, bamboo huts where 60 or 80 monks lived together. We stayed there for three months, and then were transferred to Buxa. Out of the 4,000 monks that had escaped from Tibet, 300 monks were chosen to study and were given 200 acres of land. We spent about nine years there, and then in 1969 we came to southern India. There were about 197 monks to build Sera Je Monastery, a total of 300 from both Sera Je and Sera Me. At first we lived in tents, and we made roads, cleared the jungles, worked in the fields. All the monks did that.
I had difficult times. But in Tibet, there are lots of people who suffer, and that’s nothing compared to them. And it was my wish to study Sera Je, get a good education, have good masters. I got the geshe degree in 1985. It took a long time because they didn’t have lower classes in the beginning; we all had to go to the same classes. And there’s no fees or salary so, until 1961, I kept working for the monastery.
In the monastery in 1982, there were already about 300-400 monks who were born in India when the monks started coming from Tibet, forced. It increased in 1988 and, now, there are more than 3,000. But the reason why they come is that, if they’re teachers, they’re not given time to teach. And even if the students have teachers, they don’t have much chance to study. There’s some difference about education, because the monks who were here before had started studying at the age of seven or eight. Nowadays, the monks who come from Tibet are 15 to 18 years old and still not literate. And the monks coming now are more unruly, because there’s no rules and discipline in Tibet. At the time they escaped, they had difficult times. There are lots of monks whose hands had to be amputated because of frostbite. And they suffered torture, imprisonment.
The monks from Tibet have no place to go, no food, no clothes; they have great difficulties. So they come to the monastery, and the monastery has to receive them. But there are diseases in the monastery, and the monastery itself has great difficulties in offering them room to study and live. And that’s the reason why we came here - as a fundraiser for the monastery as well as for the monks. In the monastery, education is very good. Lots of monks in the younger generation have become geshe, and lots are becoming. Because this is the main thing in their heart, to become geshe. When they first come from Tibet to the monastery and they have their wishes, it is that they will become monk, become geshe. And they’re fulfilling their wishes.

Geshe Lhagpa
I was born in Tibet in 1956. In 1959, with my father and mother, I came to India, where I grew up. I became a monk when I was nine, staying in another monastery. I joined Sera Je when I was 14, because it had many teachers, teaching us Buddhism very well.
I think America is good, quite good. We came here to exchange religions, and we want to have control over our religions. But many young Tibetans are coming to India to study Buddhism, because they never had enough time to study in Tibet. We don’t have enough facilities for them, so we need some support.

Geshe Yeshe Gyatso
I was born in India and grew up in Gangtok, in poor conditions. When I was nine years old, the Sera Je monks came from Buxa, where they lived in tents. They came to our settlement because they didn’t have a big enough building for their prayer services. I liked to go and watch them do their puja, their prayers and rituals. Immediately I was inspired by the way the monks spend their life, the way they think.
I kept asking my mother to let me become a monk, but she said I was too young. Then one day on my way home from school, I went to an Indian barber and had him shave off my hair. My mother said that if my wish was that strong, I could be a monk, and she took me to the monastery.
So from the ages of nine to 15, I studied basic religious texts. After the age of 15, I studied Buddhist dialectics and finally became a geshe. Now with so many monks from Tibet coming and the population always increasing, health and hygiene have become major problems, so we were sent here to raise funds for them.

Geshe Thubten Sonam
I became a monk when I was nine years old. When the monastery was first built in southern India, we were living in a tent. My parents and all the lamas had connections to Tibet, so my parents were among the first to become monks in the younger generation. When they came, there were only about 290 monks. Now we have more than 3,000.
We had a really hard time in the early years, in the 1970s. Even our teachers had great hardships. Whatever they were paid by the Indian government for working in the fields, they would use to buy food that they shared with their students. We never had real tea [i.e., tea with milk or sugar or butter and salt], only black tea. These conditions continued until 1975. It was hard everyplace.
There is a high incidence of tuberculosis among the monks who came from Tibet, not so much among those who were born in India. About 25% of new arrivals get sick. It’s because of these difficulties that we are here to raise funds. The problem isn’t so much getting medications as it is health and hygiene and, especially, getting enough food. We plan to have better food, such as eggs and bananas. I worked in the Health Care Committee at Sera for about two years. When I first entered, there were only about 20 who suffered from TB; now there are 40 or 50. The number is always growing. There are two factors here: food and climate. We don’t have proper housing, so when we have TB patients, we can’t isolate them. We all have to live together, so the disease spreads from one person to the next.

Thubten Rabgye
I was born in northern India, in Dalhousie, and went to school for three years. I don’t remember this, but my mother tells me that when I was very young, I used to cry because I wanted so much to be a monk like my brother. My brother would come home on vacation from the monastery and, when I saw his robes, I was very curious and wanted to be like him. When I was eight years old, my mother sent me to the monastery.
Then I was taught how to read. I went to school for five years. In school, we learn English and Tibetan grammar, and we have to memorize scriptures. I kept memorizing all these things and, after five years, I entered the dialectics class. Now I’m about to finish my degree, and I’m high level! I only need three or four years to finish my geshe degree. I’m the youngest student in my class, so I have the advantage of being able to imitate more advanced students.
When I first became a monk, I had a very hard time, always remembering my family, my parents, always crying. I don’t remember that now. I didn’t go home for six years, and when I first visited them, I couldn’t even recognize my mother and my brothers. Now I’ve been in the monastery for about 13 years, and every couple of years I go home on vacation, to visit my family.
My first teacher passed away. Now I have another teacher, who’s giving me teachings and guidance. I hope that, after finishing this tour, I’ll go back and continue my studies. When I become a geshe, then I’ll be responsible for teaching the younger ones.

Ugyen Rigzin
I was born in Tibet, and lived there over 17 years before I escaped to India. My parents are still in Tibet. I came to India to further my studies and to preserve the Tibetan culture and religion. You can learn well in India, because the high masters, high lamas, from Tibet, they went to India. They don’t have teachers in Tibet.
In Tibet, there was nothing to study. All you had was Chinese language, Communist views. It took about nine months for me to escape into India. There were no motors, no buses; we just had to walk. Then for about four months, I wandered around India trying to decide whether to become a monk, since I had to decide for myself. Here in India, no one tells you what to do. What monastery you go to is also your own choice. There are so many great masters that came from Sera Monastery, both in India and in Tibet, that you can learn secular and dharma history. That’s why I entered Sera. I can read and write Tibetan now, and I’m learning English and Hindi. It’s for our future: When we gain our independence, I’ll know the languages we need.
There’s only four years left to finish my geshe degree, and then I have to decide where I should go to learn tantric, either Gyuto or Gyume.

Jampa Choejor
I was born in Tibet in 1968. 1968 was the worst time in Tibet; that was when the first Communist ideas came in. I was born in a very isolated village. The Chinese didn’t establish any schools. There was no Chinese school, and no school where you could learn English, so I didn’t study. I learned what I could from my parents, but that wasn’t enough. I became a monk when I was 16. During those years, I was living with my parents. It would have been hard to further my studies if I had stayed at home. When I was 19, I decided to go to India, partly because His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also in India. He’s a great Buddhist teacher. There are so many greatly learned teachers in India, and monasteries such as Sera, Drepung, Ganden.
There are a lot of Tibetans between the ages of 18 and 30 who go to India to study. None have Chinese-issued passports, so they cross over the mountains instead of using the main roads. When you see them coming and going, you want to join them. I also fled on foot. It took one and a half months.
I entered Sera Je Monastery and studied for eight years before joining the tour. I never dreamed about coming to the US, but I had to come for the benefit of the monks. I find that India is the best place to learn. If you live in America, it’s hard to get teachers. Or Dalai Lamas.

Thubten Nyima
I was born in Tibet, and I became a monk in Tibet as well, when I was 18 years old. I studied in a small monastery called Gangtse Monastery. I didn’t get enough teachings to educate me, and I couldn’t find teachers. I heard that I could find more in India, so I came to India. It took about two months when I escaped from Tibet to India. Then I joined Sera Je Monastery.
I’ve spent about ten years in the monastery, and my parents are still in Tibet - my parents, all my relatives. I wish to go back to Tibet sometime, but it’s hard for me to get a passport from the Chinese government because I escaped from Tibet. My parents and I write to each other, but it takes about three months between the time I send a letter and the time I get a reply. There are no telephones where they live, no computers, no E-mail, no television. My parents also advised me to study in a monastery, be with the monks. They’re happy that I’m here. I’m getting an education and doing advanced monastic studies, and I’m happy.If I go back without a passport, I’m afraid it will do harm for my parents as well. If I am unable to go to visit them, then when we get our freedom back, I hope to meet them.

Losang Tsering
I was born in Tibet. I didn’t have a difficult time when I came to India, because my uncle took me when I was 12 years old, in 1988. It’s hard to get an education in Tibet, so I chose to go to India with my uncle, to learn. Then I joined Sera Je.
In the program, I do Tashi Shoelpa’s dance, Black Hat dance, and Yak dance. We learned these really quickly to be able to perform them, but usually it takes years to learn them.

Losang Phuntsog
I was born in Tibet in 1967. I decided to become a monk in 1978, and my wishes came true in 1980 when I entered Shabten Monastery. The reason I went to India was that there were no longer any high masters in Tibet. All the great teachers were tortured, put in Chinese prisons, or died. Those who did not die in prison are very old and it’s very hard for them to offer teachings. Even if there are teachers, there are no opportunities to study. In Tibet you have to go to all the Chinese political meetings, so there’s no time for prayers or rituals. In India, we can study 24 hours a day.

Dhondup
I was born in India in 1972, and became a monk when I was nine years old. I am happy being with the monks in the monastery. My mother passed away four years ago, but my father, brother and sisters look after me.

Jampa Thardoe
I was born in India in 1976, and I became a monk when I was nine years old. I’ve been in the monastery eleven or twelve years now. I learned my English and the Tibetan grammar in the old monastery; we have a small school, called Sera Je School, where they teach English, and Hindi as well. I studied English for about six years. Two years ago, I started studying Buddhist dialectics. Then I had to come here. This tour is good for my English studies, but it’s very hard to practice Buddhism in America. The people have lots of problems. We have our own faith in religion, especially the bodhisattva. Still, I think it’s good to meet so many people, to get experience of what they are doing.

NOTE: Losang Lungrig, Sand Mandala Master, and Sonam Woser, Sand Mandala Artist, were not travelling with the group when these interviews took place, and so could not be included.

Thanks to Jampa Thardoe of the Sera Je Monks Tour and to Lama Pema Wangdak of the Palden Sakya Center (4-10 West 101st Street #63, New York, NY 10025; tel. 212-866-4339) for their work as translators.