What do they study at shedras and academic curriculums of Namdroling, Dzongsar, Mindroling and Sherab ling Shedras?

For those interested in the various subjects that are being studied at the great monastic universities of Tibetan Buddhism, it might be nice to take a look at some of their curriculums. These universities are called 'shedra'. As the Rigpa Wiki says, "the Tibetan word shedra (bshad grwa) literally means a ‘centre for teaching’. In traditional monastic centres, the shedra is the school where monks and nuns study the most important Buddhist scriptures, based on the explanations of their teacher, or khenpo."

Over the years I've collected the curriculums of several of the most important shedras in India. A good introduction to what kind of texts are being studied at present day shedras is written by our friends from Berotsana: Tibetan Buddhist Scholastic Education . Also you might want to read about Khenpo Zhenga at the rigpa wiki, who is one of the most important figures in the creation of Shedras some time ago. He is the author of commentaries to the thirteen great texts, which form the basis for most present day shedras, like Namdroling and Dzongsar Shedra.

Another incredible resource is Andreas Kretschmars pdf's, which can be downloaded from http://www.kunpal.com/ . In the first chapter you will find included an Introduction by Dzogchen Khenpo Chöga and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, The History of Dzongsar Shedra in East Tibet, Life Story of Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, and Interviews with Khenpo Ape, Kyabje Khenpo Trashi Palden, Khenpo Pema Sherab and Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche's.

Curriculums:

Namdroling Shedra Curriculum
Dzongsar Shedra syllabus (Tibetan only! Scanned syllabus, the actual curriculum starts on page 5)
Mindroling course of study & actual curriculum (taken from website some years ago, but I cannot find it on their current website)
SherabLing

Buddhist jokes cartoons collection

From the Buddha Patch up to the zen GPS, and from the Buddhist reality show up to the zenemies. All gathering here for your entertainment.

Have fun

How to get to Bir and Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Bir is getting increasingly popular and thus it seemed time to write a few notes on how to easily get there. This is surely not the only way to get to Bir, but it will give you some hints for a pleasant journey. Information and  prices are from 2012.

First of all when you book your flight, make sure it lands in Delhi in the morning.  If you arrive in the evening you’d have to look for a hotel in the middle of the night in Delhi, and I can tell from experience that’s not the best idea. Another hint for booking flight’s is to book directly with the airline company. You can use search engines for a cheap flight, but then once you’ve found it just book directly with them instead of on these sites.

Once you get to Delhi airport, outside there will be loads of people offering you a taxi. Some look very official but don’t be deceived. Just continue walking to the official taxi stand building. There you can buy a ticket with a number for a taxi, If I remember correctly they’re yellow/green. Then you can go to any location you wish ofcourse, but I recommend to take a taxi to Majnu Katila , the Tibetan Settlement in Delhi. The Taxi should cost only about 400 rupees. This is like a little China-town but then with Tibetans. For me it’s like a safe haven in Delhi, much like Boudha is in Kathmandu.

If you get to Majnu Katila in the morning, first thing you can do is get a guesthouse, at least for the day to drop your bag and relax.  Normally there is no need to book a guesthouse in advance, there are plenty, and not very expensive either.

Half a day in Majnu Katila is usually enough for me, so after having had breakfast I get my bus Ticket to Himachal Pradesh. There are several options. One option is to book a bus to Dharamsala, these ones leave from Majnu Katila. If you want to go to Bir straight away, you have to go with a taxi to the Indian bus station (ISBT bus station), and buy a ticket to Baijnath. A taxi to the bus station should cost around 100 rupees, a motorized riksha around 70 rupees (both one way). The cheap bus is only 500 rupees, but I can highly recommend to get the AC bus for about 800 rupees. These are all night-buses, and thus you will arrive in Dharamsala or Baijnath in the morning. On the bus station, to buy the ticket for the AC bus you have to go inside the -unfinished- building, go up and look for counter 9. Currently the bus leaves at 19:45, but that might change of course. An advice is to leave on time from Majnu Katila, perhaps one hour in advance, because there might be some traffic jams around this time, and also it might take some time to find your bus in the chaos of the bus station. Currently the bus leaves somewhat at the back of the station, just around the corner. Just look for somewhat more fancy busses, and ask, ask, and ask again.

Edit: Last year there was a deluxe bus going straight to Bir from Majnu Katila. However, currently it seems to go only until Khangra.

On the one and only street in Majnu Katila, on the corner of the main exit is a good shop where you can exchange money and book buses trains, flights or whatever. Here you can buy a ticket for the bus to Dharamsala, but remember for the bus to Baijnath you have to go and buy the ticket in advance at the bus station.

Another option for the somewhat wealthier travellers would be to take the plane to Dharamsala. Once I know more about this option I will edit this post. A Taxi from Dharamsala to Bir should cost around 1500 rupees. 

One final option, is to take the train to Pathankot, and from there take a taxi to Dharamsala or Bir. For me it’s to much of a detour, but if you hate the night bus perhaps this is an option for you (but then it will be a night-train so not so much difference). 

In Majnu Katila, don’t forget to buy plenty of books from the Tibetan Books store. There are two shops , one big one and one smaller one. You cannot buy any books in Bir, only in Dharamsala you can buy books.

If you take the Bus to Baijnath, then from there you can take the taxi to Bir which should cost about 250-300 rupees. For the bus-diehards, there is also a bus going.

You can find a list with places to stay at the Deerpark website.

Also check out this new site The Bir Portal , which also has information about the new permit which you might need for Bir. Here you can find a map of Himachal Pradesh

Random events in Bir

The month follwing Losar was a busy one for the Chokling monks in Bir. Not one or two but three drupchen's were performed.

The first one was the Padma Khandro.

The torma-factory just below the temple in Tsering Jong: monks preparing for the Padma Khandro Drupchen.

Invoking Mahadeva or Lha chen during the Pamda Khandro Drupchen

In a Drupchen there are outer, inner and secret boundary's, which are established on the preliminary day and normally also taken down again on the siddhi-day. However, this time there was no break between the first drupchen -Padma Khandro- and the next one -Chime Phakma Nyingtik-. So the boundary's were not taken down and we immidiatly, with only 1 torma making day in between, launched ourselves into the second Drupchen. After that, for me recovery took about 5 days ;)

Luckily I dont have to make torma's and so in between I could go for a little bike ride: Sherab Ling in the distance.




Light offerings during the Chime Phakma Nyingtik Drupchen

Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche with two Chokling Tulku's during the Chime Phakma Nyingtik Drupchen.

OT blessing everybody with a Red Tara statue during the receiving of the Siddhi's

The third drupchen was performed in Chokling Monastery and was attended by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.


Note: for those who dont know what a Drupchen is, a very beautiful description from the Rigpa Wiki:
"Drupchen (Tib. གྲུབ་ཆེན་, Wyl. sgrub chen) — literally “vast accomplishment,” is a form of intensive group practice that epitomizes the depth, power, and precision of the Vajrayana, drawing together the entire range of its skilful methods—mystical, ritual, and artistic—and including: the creation of the mandala house; the complete sadhana practice with visualization, mudra, chant, and music; continuous day and night practice of mantra; the creation of tormas and offerings, with sacred substances and precious relics; the tsok feast; the sacred dance of cham; as well as the construction of the sand mandala. All blend to create the transcendent environment of the pure realm of the deity and awaken, for all those taking part, the pure perception of this world as a sacred realm.

So it is said that several days participating in a drupchen can yield the same results as years of solitary retreat, and great contemporary masters such as Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche have made a point of encouraging and reviving the practice of drupchen, because of its power of transformation in this degenerate age."

Advanced Colloquial Tibetan or kha skad book

With the encouragement of the author i'm very pleased to present to you a free colloquial Tibetan book, with audio!

The words in this book are very usefull because, unlike many Tibetan Textbooks, they are the words actually used by Tibetans in exile.

From the introduction:
"This book should take up where the other textbooks such as The Manual of Standard Tibetan, Colloquial Tibetan leave off. One who has studied such textbooks should have a good foundation and know many basic terms, sentence structures, and vocabulary dealing with coming, going, eating, sleeping--what is called in Tibetan "eating and drinking language ." What is provided here should help to bring one to the next level--to be able to express one's feelings and desires, discuss politics, religion and other complex topics."

"This book is a side project of mine and is still a work in progress. Please distribute it freely and updates will be made available online as I continue to add more example sentences, mp3s etc"

If you only want the book please go to this link: Advanced Colloquial Tibetan kha skad.pdf
If you also want the audio go to: Advanced Colloquial Tibetan with audio

Thanks to Justin!

Dusum Sangye / Six Vajra Verses chanted by Chokling monks

At the end of each Drupchen in Bir, the Chokling monks have an amazing way of chanting the Dusum Sangye prayer . The chants seems slightly different as Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's version, but correct me if i'm wrong.

You can listen here .

If you cannot see the text below it means your computer cannot display Tibetan script. Go to www.digitaltibetan.org for help.

དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ༔

དངོས་གྲུབ་ཀུན་བདག་བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཞབས༔

བར་ཆད་ཀུན་སེལ་བདུད་འདུལ་དྲག་པོ་རྩལ༔

གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ༔

ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་བའི་བར་ཆད་ཞི་བ་དང༌༔

བསམ་པ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔

ཞེས་གཏེར་ཆེན་མཆོག་གྱུར་བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་པས་སེང་ཆེན་གནམ་བྲག་གི་གཡས་ཟུར་བྲག་རི་རིན་ཆེན་བརྩེགས་པ་ནས་སྤྱན་དྲངས་པའི་དུས་བབས་ཀྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་འདི་ཉིད་བྱིན་རླབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བས་ཀུན་གྱིས་ཁ་ཏོན་དུ་གཅེས་པར་ཟུངས་ཤིག། །།

Happy Losar

After having stayed in Holland for some time, I was very glad to arive once again in chaotic, beautiful, dirty and incredible India. Upon arrival in Delhi in Majnu Katilla, something like china town but then for Tibetans, I met an old friend. One of the Chokling monks was also packing to leave. It was quite ironic because he was leaving for europa and I was heading up to the mountain town of Bir where he came from. We contemplated exchanging visa's but probably the customs would have noticed so we didn't. It reminded me of this one documentary with Dzongsar Khyentse, where one monk quits his monkhood to become a dishwasher in Amerika, while a Taiwanese layperson decides to go to Dzongsar Shedra in Tibet.

I arrived just in time to join the anual Gutor ritual in which all the negativity of the old year is being thrown away. Then on the 1^st day of the new year Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche blessed all his monks including a following of lay people who came to receive his blessing.

For five days during lunch and diner there was a great banquet for everyone.

Although just like previous years some Tibetans do not celebrate Losar, Rinpoche mentioned in his talk that for us Vajrayana practitioners it's actually important and auspicious to have a great feast, or gaton in Tibetan. May all be auspicous for the coming year!

Monks waiting for Rinpoche to come for sang or smoke-offering practice at Tsering Jong.