A group of monks from the Gelugpa monastery Gaden Jangtse (Mundgod, south India) will offer a public program of Tibetan chanting, with explanation in English, and followed by an opportunity to ask questions. The event takes place at 7:30 pm. April 9th, in the Braun Room of Andover Hall (45 Francis Ave.). The monks--four Geshes and a former abbot of Gaden Jangtse--are touring to raise money for the support of their monastery. Scroll down to read more information on the tour, the monastery, and the Gelugpa tradition.

Gaden Tehor Khangtsen is part of Gaden Jangtse Monastery which has been reestablished in Mundgod, South India. The monastery was reestablished under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama after the communist Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.

The monastery continues to keep and maintain its traditional Tibetan Buddhist studies and practices, producing scholars and meditation masters. Therefore, the monastery continues to give admission to new monks, mainly new arrivals from Tibet. As a result, the monasteries have to provide all accommodation, food, clothing and medical care for these monks.

Due to the increase in the monk population in the last couple of years, Gaden Tehor Khangtsen currently has about 300 monks. As a result, the current Abbot had to borrow money to build more rooms to accommodate all these monks. The Khangtsen is having a very difficult time paying off their loan as the monastery has no means of steady income. So we have decided to coordinate a tour for them to raise these funds.

In a previous incarnation and during the time of Buddha Shakyamuni in India, the little boy Je Tsongkhapa offered a crystal mala to the Buddha. Buddha predicted that in the future this little boy would take rebirth in Tibet and establish Gaden monastery at the site where one of his students was to hide a special white conch shell. And so the great monk scholar and saint Je Tsongkhapa was born in 1382 and was recognized at an early age as being of remarkable character and intelligence. Je Tsongkhapa later found that white conch shell, establishing Gaden Monastery in 1409, the first of the five great monasteries (Gaden, Drepung, Sera, Gyudmed, Gyuto) and seat of the Gelugpa school. Gaden was a place to train moral, disciplined monks in a reformed version of Tibetan Buddhism free of sectarian differences prevailing at the time. The monastery was situated in clear view of the Lhasa Valley and quickly grew to the size of a small township, housing 7,000 monks just before the 1959 Communist Chinese invasion. At that time, the Chinese army destroyed Gaden monastery and only 169 of 7000 monks were fortunate enough to escape into India. Those monks whom survived that initial attack of Gaden in Tibet were quite routinely imprisoned, killed, tortured and/or forced to marry nuns; a clear attempt by the Communist Chinese to rid Tibet of its unique monastic culture, institutions and sadly, the monks themselves. Within a few years Gaden monastery lay entirely in ruins with nothing of the original monastery or the monks residing there to be found.

A great exodus thus began to take place and continues to this day. Thousands of Tibetans flee the persecution in their native land by trekking over the Himalayas in an attempt to seek sanctuary in India, many dying along the way. Under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibet's great monasteries have been reestablished in Southern India on land generously donated by the Indian Government. With only 169 of the original Gaden monks managing to escape, 107 acres of jungle were transformed into cultivated fields and the first central building at Gaden was re-constructed, a building capable of accommodating only 300 people.

Gelugpa Tradition

The Kadampa tradition founded by Atisha was the direct source of inspiration for the development of the Gelug tradition founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1382-1445). He was born in the Tsongkha region of Amdo province. At the age of three he received full-fledged lay ordination from the Fourth Karmapa, Rolpey Dorjey, and the name Kunga Nyingpo. At the age of seven he received novice vows from his teacher, Chöjey Dhondup Rinchen, and was given the name Lobsang Drakpa. Even at this young age he had received many teachings and initiations of Heruka, Yamantaka and Hevajra, and could recite by heart texts like "Expression of the Names of Manjushri."

Tsongkhapa traveled extensively in search of knowledge and studied with masters of all the existing traditions beginning with Chennga Chökyi Gyelpo, from whom he received teachings on topics such as the "Mind of Enlightenment" and the "Great Seal" (Mahamudra). He was taught the medical treatises by Könchok Kyab at Drikung. In Nyethang Dewachen he studied the "Ornaments for Clear Realisation" and the "Perfection of Wisdom" and, excelling in debate, he became famous for his erudition. He also travelled to Sakya where he studied monastic discipline, phenomenology, valid cognition, the Middle Way and Guhyasamaja with lamas such as Kazhipa Losel and Rendawa. He also received transmissions of the "Six Doctrines of Naropa" the Kalachakra, Mahamudra, "The Path and Its Fruit," Chakrasamvara and numerous others and transmitted them to his disciples.

In addition to his studies and teachings he engaged in extensive meditation retreats. The longest, at Wolkha Cholung, lasted four years during which he was accompanied by eight close disciples. He is reputed to have performed millions of prostrations, mandala offerings and other forms of purification practice. Tsongkhapa frequently had visions of meditational deities and especially of Manjushri, with whom he could communicate to settle his questions about profound aspects of the teachings.

Tsongkhapa studied with more than a hundred teachers, practiced extensively and taught thousands of disciples mainly in the central and eastern regions of Tibet. In addition, he wrote a great deal. His collected works, comprising eighteen volumes, contain hundreds of titles relating to all aspects of Buddhist teachings and clarify some of the most difficult topics of sutrayana and mantrayana teachings. Major works among them are: "The Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path" (Lam-rim chen-mo), "The Great Exposition of Tantras" (sNgag-rim chenmo), "The Essence of Eloquence on the Interpretive and Definitive Teachings" (Drnng-nges legs-bshad snying-po), "The Praise of Relativity" (rTen-'brel bstodpa), "The Clear Exposition of the Five Stages of Guhyasamaja" (gSang-'dus rim-lnga gsal-sgron) and "The Golden Rosary" (gSer-phreng). Among his many main disciples, Gyeltsab Dharma Rinchen (1364-1432), Khedrub Geleg Pelsang (1385-1438), Gyalwa Gendun Drup (1391-1474), Jamyang Chöjey Tashi Pelden (1379-1449), Jamchen Chöjey Shakya Yeshe, Jey Sherab Sengey and Kunga Dhondup (1354-1435) are some of the more significant.

Tsongkhapa passed away at the age of sixty on the twenty-fifth of the tenth Tibetan month, entrusting his throne in Gaden to Gyeltsabjey. So began a tradition which continues to the present day.

The Lower Tantric College, Gyudmed, was established by Jey Sherab Sengey in 1433, and the Upper Tantric College, Gyutö, by Gyuchen Kunga Dhondup in 1474. At their peak there were more than five thousand monks in each of the monastic universities around Lhasa, Gaden, Drepung and Sera, while there were at least five hundred in each tantric college. Young men would travel from all three regions of Tibet to enroll at these monastic universities as monks in order to receive an education and spiritual training. The Gelug tradition lays special emphasis on the place of ethics, as expressed through monastic discipline, as the ideal basis for religious education and practice. Consequently, the great majority of Gelugpa lamas are monks and the master who is a layman is a rarity. In addition, the Gelug tradition regards sound scholarship as a prerequisite for constructive meditation, hence, the teachings of both sutra and tantra are subject to rigorous analysis through the medium of dialectical debate.

In general, the curriculum of study covers the five major topics - The Perfection of Wisdom, Philosophy of the Middle Way, Valid Cognition, Phenomenology and Monastic Discipline. These five are studied meticulously by the dialectical method using Indian texts as well as Indian and Tibetan commentaries on them, often in the form of textbooks unique to each monastic tradition, for a period of fifteen to twenty years. On completing this training, a monk is awarded one of three levels of the degree of Geshe (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy), Dorampa, Tsogrampa and Lharampa, of which the highest is the Geshe Lharampa degree.

Subsequently, if he so wishes the Geshe may join one of the tantric colleges to study the tantras and so complete his formal studies, or he may return to his local monastery to teach, or retire into seclusion to engage in intensive meditation. A monk who has completed a Geshe's training is respected as being a fully qualified and authoritative spiritual master worthy of devotion and esteem.

This tradition remains dynamic even after coming into exile. The major Gelug monasteries, Sera, Drepung, Gaden, Tashi Lhunpo and the Gyudmed Tantric College have been re-established in various Tibetan settlements in Karnataka, and Gyutö Tantric College has been re-established in Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, all in India.