Located in the northern suburb of Lhasa City, Sera Monastery is one of famous "Three Great Monasteries" together with the Drepung Monastery and the Ganden Monastery. It is still an active monastery until now and visitors could see hundreds of red-robed monks assemble in small groups here.

The history of the Sera Monastery can date back to the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). During Ming Dynasty, Sakya Yeshe (national Buddhist master) went to Nanjing to pay a formal visit to Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty and got a great number of Buddhist sutras, sculptures, cloister cloth, wands, silks and satins, gold and silver as the awards from the emperor. He used them to built a monastery named after "Sera".

Covering an area of 114,946 square meters, there are more than 8000 monks live in the Sera Monastery during its heyday. The main architectures of the monastery are the Coqen Hall, Zhacang and Kamcun.

Coqen Hall
Built in 1710, Coqen Hall is a four-storey building located in the northeast part of the monastery. Consists of five chapels, covering an area of about 2,000 square meters and supported by 125 pillars, visitors could see the statues of Maitreya, Sakyamuni, Arhats, Tsong Khapa, and Kwan-yin with one thousand hands and eleven faces here. This is the main assembly hall where various rituals are held every year.

Zhacang
Zhacang is also known as the Buddhist College in Tibetan where is the place for monks to study. In Sera Monastery there are three Zhacangs: Me Zhacang, Je Zhacang and Ngaba Zhacang. Me Zhacang is the oldest one built in 1419 and famous for its well preserved fresco. The Je Zhacang is famous for the exhibition of the Hayagriva. The Ngaba Zhacang is the smallest and newest one for worship.

Kamcun
Kamcuns are the dormitories for monks to sleep and dine. Totally in the Sera Monastery there are about 33 Kamcuns. The Kamcuns are in different sizes and all of them are consists of reading hall, living house and tea house. Lamas from the same or neighboring areas of Tibet are placed together in a Kamcun.

A visit to Sera Monastery is actually a culture tour in Tibet. After the visit here, you will learn more about the local customs and Tibetan Buddhist. This unique experience will certainly make your tour in Lhasa memorable and meaningful.