06 · The Wider World
Sera Jey is one institution inside a much larger world. This page is the signpost: the organisation that brought this tradition to the West, the teachers who carried it, the great monasteries it comes from, and where to go next.
What this page is
A directory, not an authority. Everything below links out to the organisations and archives that actually hold the material, because they maintain it and this site does not. Where a figure or a date appears here, it comes from the linked source. Everything stays inside the Geluk tradition, the school of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which is the tradition of this monastery.
In this section
The organisation
The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition was founded at the end of 1975 by two Geluk monks who had walked out of Tibet, and who found, to their surprise, that Westerners wanted to study with them.
It began with a handful of foreigners turning up in Nepal in 1967. Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche established Kopan, on a hill outside Kathmandu, and started teaching month-long courses. From 1974 they toured the West. Centres followed, and in 1975 the whole thing was given a name and a structure.
Fifty years later it is a network of teaching centres, monasteries, nunneries, hospices, schools, publishing houses, prison programmes and retreat lands, all following one curriculum and one lineage. For somebody who wants to study this tradition and does not live near a Tibetan settlement, FPMT is usually the answer.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche died on 13 April 2023. FPMT's board announced that there would be no direct successor as spiritual director, and that the board would take on that responsibility collectively, following the advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. On 18 March 2025, at the CPMT summit, His Holiness confirmed that Rinpoche has been reborn and that the rebirth appears to be in Nepal. A search team has been appointed.
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, both refugees from Tibet, meet their first foreign students in India.
The two lamas establish a monastery on Kopan hill outside Kathmandu. Sources differ on the exact founding year. The month-long November course there becomes the doorway for thousands of foreigners.
Extensive tours of the West. In 1975 a single eight-and-a-half month tour of nine countries adds four new centres, bringing the total to twelve, and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition is formally established at the end of that year.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche becomes spiritual director and holds the role for thirty-nine years. Later that year a boy is born in Bubión, Spain, to two of Lama Yeshe's students.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognises Tenzin Ösel Hita as Lama Yeshe's reincarnation.
On 13 April, after thirty-nine years leading the organisation.
On 18 March His Holiness confirms that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been reborn, apparently in Nepal, and a search begins.
The teachers
Several of them came through Sera Je, which is not a coincidence. The monastery was one of the main places this knowledge survived the twentieth century.
Head of the Geluk tradition
Tenzin Gyatso, understood in the tradition as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. He guided the re-establishment of the great monastic seats in exile in southern India, founded Sera Jey's health care committee in 1989, inaugurated its great assembly hall in 1997, and has conferred the Kalachakra empowerment thirty-four times between 1954 and 2017. Everything on this website sits inside his tradition.
dalailama.comCo-founder of FPMT
Born in Tibet in 1935. He entered Sera Monastic University at the age of six and studied there until 1959, when, as he put it, “the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world.” In exile in India he took Lama Zopa Rinpoche as his student, met their first Westerners in 1967, established Kopan near Kathmandu, and from 1974 toured the West. He is one of the most readable Buddhist teachers in English: funny, blunt and impatient with piety.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom ArchiveSpiritual director of FPMT for 39 years
Born in Thami in the Everest region and recognised soon after birth as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, Kunsang Yeshe. He studied near Pagri until 1959, escaped through Bhutan, and met Lama Yeshe at the Buxa Duar refugee camp. He founded Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, which now houses roughly four hundred monks and four hundred nuns. After Lama Yeshe's death in 1984 he led FPMT for thirty-nine years. He died on 13 April 2023.
His FPMT homepageRecognised reincarnation of Lama Yeshe
Born in Bubión, Granada, to two of Lama Yeshe's students, and recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986. From the age of seven he lived and studied at Sera in southern India. He later chose to leave monastic life, took a degree in cinematography in Madrid, and released the documentary Being Your True Nature in 2012. He served on the FPMT board and continues to teach and travel within the FPMT world.
His FPMT pageSera Je geshe; founder of Deer Park
He entered Sera Je in Lhasa at eighteen. In 1962 His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked him to accompany three young tulkus to America; in 1967 he was invited to the University of Wisconsin, where he became a professor of South Asian studies. In 1976 he founded Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon, Wisconsin. He was among the first to bring the full Sera Je training into a Western university.
Deer Park Buddhist CenterAbbess of Sravasti Abbey
An American nun trained in this tradition, and co-author with His Holiness the Dalai Lama of the multi-volume Library of Wisdom and Compassion. In 2003 she founded Sravasti Abbey in Newport, Washington, the first Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western monks and nuns in the United States. Her books are the ones most often handed to beginners.
thubtenchodron.orgSera Mey geshe; Jamyang London
Guiding teacher of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London since 1994, and the author of The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, a six-volume course that takes a reader from the four noble truths through to tantra. It is the closest thing to a structured monastic curriculum available to somebody studying at home.
Wisdom PublicationsThe monasteries
Every one of these was destroyed or emptied after 1959, and every one of them was rebuilt somewhere else. The founding dates are the Tibetan ones. The addresses are where the institutions actually are today.
1409, founded by Je Tsongkhapa himself
Today Mundgod, Karnataka (Doeguling settlement)
Today14.9715° N, 75.0413° EMapswhat3words
In Tibet29.7555° N, 91.4770° EQF4G+5QXMapswhat3words
The first of the three seats, founded by the founder. Its two colleges, Shartse and Jangtse, were rebuilt at Mundgod from 1970, starting with 85 refugee monks. The head of the Geluk tradition holds the title Ganden Tripa, the Holder of the Throne of Ganden.
Website1416, founded by Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden
Today Mundgod, Karnataka
Today14.9715° N, 75.0413° EMapswhat3words
In Tibet29.6734° N, 91.0491° EM2FX+8MRMapswhat3words
Once the largest monastery in the world. Its colleges Loseling and Gomang were re-established at Mundgod, and together now hold several thousand monks. The Dalai Lamas historically resided at Drepung before the Potala was built.
Website1419, founded by Jamchen Chöje Shakya Yeshe
Today Bylakuppe, Karnataka
Today12.4196° N, 75.9523° E (approx.)Mapswhat3words
In Tibet29.6978° N, 91.1329° EMapswhat3words
The third seat, and the subject of this website. Its philosophical colleges, Sera Jey and Sera Mey, were re-established at Bylakuppe in 1970 with 197 and 103 monks respectively. Lama Yeshe, Geshe Lhundub Sopa and many others on this page came through Sera Je.
On this site1447, founded by the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drupa
Today Bylakuppe, Karnataka
Today12.4292° N, 75.9953° EMapswhat3words
In Tibet29.2683° N, 88.8700° EMapswhat3words
The traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas, at Shigatse in Tibet. Re-established at Bylakuppe in 1972 under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It sits a short distance from Sera.
Website1433, founded by Je Sherab Senge, a disciple of Tsongkhapa
Today Gurupura, near Hunsur, Karnataka
Today12.2052° N, 76.2830° EMapswhat3words
The Lower Tantric College. One hundred and fifty monks reached India in the first wave of refugees and regrouped at Dalhousie, moving permanently to Karnataka in 1972. Geshes enter here after the philosophical curriculum.
Website1475, founded by Jetsun Kunga Dhondup
Today Sidhbari, near Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh
Today32.1868° N, 76.3684° EMapswhat3words
The Upper Tantric College. Sixty monks escaped in 1959, gathering first at Dalhousie and then in Arunachal Pradesh before settling near Dharamsala. Its deep chanting is the sound most Westerners associate with Tibetan ritual.
1564, founded by the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso
Today McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala
Today32.2324° N, 76.3244° EMapswhat3words
The personal monastery of the Dalai Lamas. Around two hundred monks, studying across all four Tibetan lineages rather than one. In 1992, on His Holiness's advice, it opened an American branch and institute in Ithaca, New York.
About 1969 to 1971, founded by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Today Kathmandu, Nepal
Today27.7422° N, 85.3639° EMapswhat3words
Not one of the historic seats, and the most consequential of them for anybody reading this in English. In April 1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught a ten-day course here to about a dozen Westerners. It has run every year since, grew into the month-long November course, and now draws around two hundred people a year. A very large share of the Western Buddhists in this tradition, including the people who went home and founded the centres, first met the teaching on that hill. The monastery and the neighbouring Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery hold roughly four hundred monks and four hundred nuns.
On this siteWhere to go next
All of these are real, current, and within this tradition. Several give their material away.
The directory
Every FPMT centre, monastery, nunnery, hospice, school and project, with addresses, transcribed from the official listings. Searchable by country.
Sources
The organisations below maintain the material this page points at. Where a date, a figure or a name appears above, it comes from one of them.
The founding at the end of 1975, the 1975 tour of nine countries, and the size of the network.
The directory of 138 centres in 34 countries, transcribed country by country.
Born 1935, entered Sera at six, studied until 1959, the first Western students in 1967, Kopan, the teaching tours, and the recognition of his reincarnation.
Born 1945 at Thami, recognised as the Lawudo Lama, Buxa Duar, Kopan, and thirty-nine years as spiritual director.
His Holiness confirming on 18 March 2025 that the reincarnation has taken rebirth in Nepal.
Born 1985 in Bubión, recognised in 1986, educated at Sera, and his later life and work.
Ganden Shartse regrouping in India in 1961 and relocating to Mundgod in 1970.
Ganden founded by Tsongkhapa in 1409, and Jangtse re-established at Mundgod in 1969 with 169 monks who had escaped Tibet.
Drepung at Mundgod, its colleges, and the size of the monastic population.
The settlement founded in 1966, its population of over fifteen thousand, and its institutions.
Founded in 1447 by the First Dalai Lama, and re-established at Bylakuppe in 1972.
The two Geluk tantric colleges, their founding dates, and their re-establishment in India.
Gyudmed Tantric University at Gurupura near Hunsur in Karnataka.
Founded in 1564 by the Third Dalai Lama, the personal monastery of the Dalai Lamas, and its American branch at Ithaca.
The monastery outside Kathmandu founded by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
The training monastery founded in Washington State in 2003 by Ven. Thubten Chodron.
Founded in 1976 by Geshe Lhundub Sopa, a Sera Je geshe, in Oregon, Wisconsin.
The six-volume course from a Sera Mey geshe, and the programme behind it at Jamyang London.
The collected teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, much of it free to read.
A free archive of explanations of Tibetan Buddhism built with Geluk teachers.
Every factual claim on this page rests on one of the sources above. Links open in a new tab. The full list for the whole site, and the standard this site holds itself to, is on the sources page.