11/05/2025
TU VIỆN DREPUNG LOSEL LING (English below)
Như Đức Phật đã tiên tri, Phật giáo sẽ hưng thịnh tại Tây Tạng. Vào năm 1416, ngài Jamyang Chojey Tashi Palden, đệ tử thân cận của Đức Je Tsongkhapa, đã sáng lập Đại học Tu viện Drepung - một trong ba đại tu viện lớn nhất Tây Tạng, được tôn xưng là “Nalanda thứ hai.”
Đức Tsongkhapa còn trao cho ngài Jamyang Chojey pháp bảo ốc báu thiêng liêng và tiên đoán rằng tu viện mới này sẽ vượt qua cả tu viện do chính ngài sáng lập. Theo thời gian, từ Drepung đã hình thành bảy trường học, trong đó lớn nhất là Drepung Loseling.
Drepung Loseling đã đào tạo nhiều bậc cao tăng uyên bác như Khechen Lekden, Jamyang Gawe Lodoe, Panchen Sonam Dakpa, cùng hơn 80 vị trụ trì, khoảng 30 vị Ganden Tripa (Đức Pháp Chủ của dòng) - từ đời thứ 8 đến đời thứ 102 - và những bậc hóa thân như Ngài Ling Rinpoche, Ngài Samdong Rinpoche (cựu Thủ tướng Chính phủ Tây Tạng lưu vong).
Tu viện Drepung xưa kia có bảy trường, trong đó Losel Ling do Acharya Lekden, học trò của Jamyang Chojey, thành lập. Có thời điểm trường quy tụ 6.000 đến 9.000 học tăng, chia thành 23 (nay là 25) khoa, mỗi khoa đại diện cho một vùng Trung Á, nhằm giữ gìn ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ và bản sắc vùng miền trong suốt quá trình tu học dài ngày xa quê.
Sau biến cố chính trị ở Tây Tạng, chỉ 305 tu sĩ kịp vượt sang Ấn Độ và dưới sự hướng dẫn của Đức Dalai Lama, tu viện tạm thời được lập tại Bauxa rồi chuyển về Karnataka năm 1971. Ngày nay, số tăng sĩ tại Drepung Loseling ở Ấn Độ đã lên đến khoảng hơn 3.000 người.
Trong những năm qua, Drepung Loseling không chỉ đào tạo các học giả, mà còn hỗ trợ các nhà nghiên cứu Phật học, tham dự nhiều hội nghị quốc tế và cử các tu sĩ sang giảng dạy tại các đại học phương Tây.
🪷 Hệ thống giáo dục
Phương pháp học chính tại Drepung Loseling là “Tsen-nyi” - tức biện kinh, một hình thức tư duy phản biện sâu sắc. Mỗi ngày, tu sĩ học 2-3 lớp, rồi dành nhiều giờ vào buổi tối và sáng sớm để biện luận nhằm thấu triệt giáo pháp. Mỗi tháng có buổi “Biện Kinh thâu đêm” trước toàn thể tăng chúngvà mỗi năm diễn ra kỳ biện kinh liên tu viện kéo dài 6 tuần.
🪷 Nội dung cốt lõi của giáo trình là Năm Đại Luận:
1. Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa (Prajnaparamita) — nói về trí tuệ giải thoát, học trong 7 năm.
2. Trung Quán (Madhyamika) — giảng về tính không và duyên khởi, học 3 năm.
3. Nhân Minh (Pramana) — nghiên cứu nhận thức, lý luận, học 6 tuần mỗi năm trong 20 năm.
4. Luật Tạng (Vinaya) — đạo đức giới luật, học 4 năm.
5. A Tỳ Đạt Ma (Abhidharma) — hệ thống hóa giáo lý, học 2 năm.
Trước khi vào học chính khóa, tu sĩ trải qua ba môn sơ cấp: “Tập yếu luận”, “Tâm lý học Phật giáo”, và “Luận lý học”.
Tổng thời gian đào tạo khoảng 20 năm, gồm 19 năm học và 1 năm ôn thi qua 25 khoa.
Ngoài giáo lý, tu viện còn dạy ngữ pháp Tây Tạng, khoa học, tiếng Anh, tiếng Trung, in ấn kinh sách quý hiếm, dạy nghề thủ công, tin học cho tu sĩ.
Trung tâm Losel Shedup Ling tại Mỹ, cùng các trung tâm ở Đài Loan, đã phổ biến giáo pháp và văn hóa Tây Tạng rộng khắp.
Tu viện còn lập phòng khám miễn phí cho tu sĩ và trợ giá cho cư dân, cũng như cung cấp gas nấu ăn miễn phí cho người dân.
Tu viện Drepung Loseling, cùng cộng đồng người Tây Tạng lưu vong, luôn tri ân sâu sắc sự cưu mang của chính phủ và nhân dân Ấn Độ, cũng như sự ủng hộ từ bạn bè quốc tế trong công cuộc bảo tồn giáo pháp và truyền thống Tây Tạng 🙏🏻
DREPUNG LOSEL LING MONASTERY
Background
As was prophesied by Lord Buddha that Buddhism would flourish infinitely in Tibet. A prestigious Drepung monastic university-one of the three largest Tibetan monastic universities- which is more popularly known as the second Nalanda University, was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Chojey Tashi Palden - a close disciple of Je-Tsong Kha Pa.
While admonishing his disciple to found a new monastic university, Je Tsong Kha Pa presented the highly treasured sacred conch to him and prophesied that this new university would surpass the one founded by Je-Tsong Kha Pa himself. With the passage of time, seven highly learned and scholars from Drepung University established seven colleges of which the largest was Drepung Loseling College.
DrepungLoseling College has been Alma Mater for numerous highly learned lamas like Khechen Lekden, Jamyang Gawe Lodoe, Panchen SonamDakpa, over eighty abbots of the monastery, about thirty Gaden Throne Holders from Je Monlam Pel- the eighth Gaden Throne Holder to Je Thupten Nyima Lungtok Tenzin Norbu- the hundred and second GadenThrone Holder, His eminence Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Professor Samdong Rinpoche-the former prime minister of Tibetan Exile govt.-directly elected by the people, to name a few.
Drepung Monastery had seven colleges, of which the largest was the Drepung Losel Ling College. Losel Ling, established by AcharyaLekden, a direct disciple of Jamyang Chojey, housed some six to nine thousand students at various periods in its history. It, in turn, wascomprised of twenty- three (now twenty five) departments, each of which represents a different region of Central Asia, thus ensuring that students would retain their mother tongue and regional affiliation throughout their long training period away from home. This allows students to teach what they have learnt, in their native dialect when they eventually return to their native place.
However, following the political upheaval in Tibet, only about 305 monks managed to flee into India and in accordance with the supreme vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a temporary monastic college was re-established at Bauxa and then was relocated to Karnataka State in 1971. Since that time many more Tibetan youths have fled Tibet in order to seek traditional education. Today, the student body in DrepungLoseling College in India has grown to approximately 3000 in number.
Over the years Drepung Loseling College in India has transformed considerably to meet the challenges of their new environment. In addition to producing hundreds of graduate students, it has received and assisted numerous scholars engaged in Buddhist studies and research, participated in dozens of international conferences, and sent many of its graduate monks to study and teach in Western universities.
Loseling’s Educational System
The principal educational tool used in all three of these great monastic universities was the technique of ‘Tsen-nyi’ or reflective enquiry, a highly disciplined form of debate applied for the purpose of penetrating into the deeper meanings of the subjects under study. Students would generally have two or three classes each day, and for many hours during the evening and following morning would debate the material that had been covered in order to analyze and experiment with it. Each month would see the “Night-Long Debate”, in which each class would get to demonstrate its talents and progress in front of the entire assembly; and each winter would witness the six-week Inter-monastery debate meet, in which the three universities would train and debate together, thus standardizing their programs.
The central curriculum in all the three monastic universities was the five great philosophical treatises of classical Buddhist India. Each college studied these from three fundamental perspectives: the central Indian treatises; the commentaries of the early monastic university masters, i.e., Tsongkhapa ( 1357-1419), Gyaltsapjey (1364-1432), Khedrupjey (1385-1438), and the First Dalai Lama (1391-1475); and their individual college manuals.
Loseling College mostly used the manual written by Panchen Sonam Dakpa (1478-1554), the tutor of the Third Dalai Lama (1543- 1588). In addition, reference would be made to numerous other treatises and manuals by later commentators, as well as to the writings of contemporary teachers. For example, in the Drepung Loselingrefugee College in India, the textbooks by the late Khensur PemaGyaltsen, who passed away in the 1980s, are tremendously popular.
The Five Great Treatises
The five Indian treatises constituting the main body of the curriculum have to be memorized by all aspiring students prior to their admission to the formal study program. This ensures that during the actual coursework they can concentrate on unpacking the deeper meanings of the fundamental texts by devoting their time to the associated textbooks, commentaries, manuals and oral guidelines
These five subjects, together with their associated Indian treatises, are as follows:
1) Prajnaparamita/” The Perfection of Wisdom”. The principal textbook, written in the mid-fourth century, covers the implicit content of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. It provides a general presentation of the philosophical and psychological principles in the process of achieving inner well-being and maturation, which are states of psychical growth known in Buddhist Sanskrit diction as Moksha or liberation and buddhahood.
Students of Drepung Losel Ling generally dedicate seven years to this study.
2) Madhyamika or “The Middle View”. This involves a specific presentation and critical analysis of the fundamental nature of phenomena, the compatibility of the absence of a findable, solid entity within things with the reality of phenomena’s valid conventional functionality.
This subject is studied for a period of three years.
3) Pramana or “ Valid Inquiry”. This involves an investigation of the underlying principles of a number of disciplines, including epistemology and linguistics, the nature of the mind and its functions, the philosophy of perception and its influence upon knowledge, the role of logical reasoning in testing the validity of personal understanding, and so forth. In all three monastic universities pramana is generally studied for six weeks a year throughout the twenty year training program.
4) Vinaya or “The Philosophy of Ethics”. Here the fundamental Indian texts used are the Vinaya-sutras or Discourses on the Philosophy of Ethics, by the Buddha, and Fundamental Treatises on the Philosophy of Ethics, by Acharya Gunaprabha. The study period generally lasts for four years.
5) Abhidharma or “Treasury of Knowledge”. This involves a survey and re-contextualization of the numerous metaphysical and psychological doctrines encountered during the students’ many years of prior study , and in a sense is the summation of the philosophical training. Abhidharma is generally studied for two years.
As a preparation to the study of these five fundamental subjects, students of all three monastic universities, and thus also of DrepungLoseling College, would begin their training with approximately a year each on three preliminary courses: “Collected Topics” which is an introduction to metaphysical analysis; “Science of Mind” which introduces the students to the basic Buddhist concepts on the nature of mind and mental functions; and “ Science of Reasoning” the methods of logical inquiry and analysis.
Thus the formal education in the three monastic universities generally required nineteen years of course work. In Drepung Losel Ling, this would be followed by at least one more year of review, during which the student would have to sit for examinations at each of the twenty five departments. Hence the full training would require approximately twenty years.
The general monk students are primarily engaged in studying the entire text of Buddhist Sutra and Ta**ra while, besides focusing on Buddhist philosophy as the main subjects, the younger monk students are given the opportunity to study other subjects like Tibetan grammar, science, English and Chinese language up to class X. Our printing press unit and library have also made remarkable contribution in printing out many of the rare texts authored by Indian and Tibetan scholars and to make them easily available for the monk students as important reference. The monastery also offers training through handicraft center and computer section to all the interested monks of the monastery.
Losel Shedup Ling, a Dharma Centre of Loseling Monastery based in Atlanta, USA has been actively engaged not only in making arrangement for monastic tour groups to USA, Europe and other countries, but also takes it as a privilege to give Dharma teaching and to introduce Tibetan tradition to all the interested people, while LoselingNangten Dharma Centre and Loling Kunphen Dharma Centre in Taiwan have endeavoured and is relentlessly making effort to teach Tibetan Buddhism and tradition to all the interested Chinese friends. The monastic clinic which is directly under the aegis and financial aid of the Loling Kunphen Dharma center in Taiwan has been set up to render medical service and dispense medicines to all monks and nuns free of cost and to the lay people irrespective of caste, creed and colour on concession rate. In the interest of public convenience and service including the monks’ community, the monastery holds the distributorship of HPCL LPG cooking gas and has been rendering service to the local public by way of the sale of refilled cooking gas cylinders to the customers without any profit motive.
Last but not the least, in furtherance of the supreme vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that of our exiled govt. based in Dharamsala, the monastery has been striving to make contribution towards achieving development in spiritual, political and other spheres of life that are aimed at benefiting people all over the world.
We, Drepung Loseling Monastic College along with all the Tibetan Diaspora in our own small ways, remains highly indebted and expresses sincere appreciation to our host, the Indian people and the govt. of India, and to all the international Tibetan Supporters and well-wishers for rendering their invaluable and unstinting support to all our noble causes.
Website: www.loselingmonastery.org
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +91-8301-245607
