In Tibet, the people never heard of the particular exam tradition, instead there was the Geshe Debate Test that was conducted during the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo (The Great Prayer Festival) which does close justification to the contemporary exam except the philosophical writing test and grammatical discourse. The Geluk Exam was founded post- Tibetan Diaspora of 1959 and later at numerous occasion, several modification have been implemented towards the tradition in order to increase the capacity of it’s scope.

The current general board of the Geluk Exam, which consisting the general supervisory staffs from the each monastic colleges; Shar Gaden and Serpom Monastery, whose responsibilities are to organise the whole scenes on time and also determining it’s venue. These board members are appointed with the further consent and mutual agreement from the both monastic colleges, with a consideration for successful continuation of the tradition, that can be joyfully savored by the coming generations in the future.

Currently the exam is 4 years of course, and held once in a year on the Yarne season. In the earlier days, it used to be 6 years of course but later decreased 2 years in the wake of the bereft segregation in 2008, which also caused a sudden fall or deficiency in the quantity of the participants. But that’s not the major case that we are worried of any more. A participant who manages to succeed consistently for these four years, will be conferred with a Geshe Lharampa Degree (Phd geshe), he then may spent a couple of years either in upper/lower Tantric University (gyu toe/gyu mey) for intensive tantric experimentation thereafter as per the Geluk tradition. But we prefer our own extraordinary Tradition.

This year’s Geluk Exam will be held at Shar Gaden with the many participants from Serpom monastery. The event will be traditionally commenced from 4th September to 17th September 2011. We wish all the participants a great success and may your wholesome deeds cause eternal tranquility amongst all beings.

In Yarne, all monastic communities, especially of the Geluk sect, here in South India, are busy engaging in numerous events. These include annual protector puja days, debate presentation of selected candidates during the assembly on their subjects, the Ven Abbot’s and Ven Disciplinarian’s speeches on monastic discipline in the traditional manner, recitation day of Ornament for Clear Realisation (Abhisamayalankara) and Treatise on the Middle Way (Madhyamakakarika) and so on. Apart from all that, the display of an oral test of major treatises by a monk who has razor-sharp memorisation skills is considered the most attractive of all. This unique presentation takes place during the monks’ assembly, followed by the debate presentation (two selected candidates debate each other). A monk who voluntarily comes forward to tackle such a monumental task is quite a rare case in the monasteries. This is because of the regular sessions that limit memorising opportunities and the necessity of extraordinary skill. Additionally, these days, the presence of modern education in the school makes it even harder, but a few have managed to do it so far who are endowed with the necessary skills in abundance. An oral test volunteer will be presented with an upper yellow robe and a set of general robes by the administration if he successfully passes the oral test without making mistakes.

In a session, three presentation events follow each other: 1) oral test presentation; 2) uma she rig geshe’s rite recitation and tantric debate test; and 3) debate presentation by the selected monks. A session’s period is well allocated as per necessity to all these three events, but the schedule is tight. Therefore, the oral test could not be done in a single session and thus is held each day of Yarne. The assembly oral test is mostly based on these treatises; The Essence of Eloquence on the Interpretive and Definitive Teachings, Root Treatise of Pramana-varttika, Root Treatise of Abhidharma-kośa, Root Treatise of Boddhisattva’s Way of Life, etc are the most common. This year, Thupten Gyatso and Dakpa Tsering both came from a poor background in Nepal and joined Shar Gaden in 2006, have just pulled off their preparation and are now all set to enter into the milestone that very few could achieve.

Thupten prefers The Essence of Eloquence on the Interpretive and Definitive Teachings, that has 232 pages and 20 long phrases per page, composed by the great master Je Tsonglhapa in Tibet, while Dakpa prefers Root Treatise of Pramana-varttika, which has 208 pages, 28 phrases per page, composed by the great Indian philosopher Dharmakirti in 7th century. We wish them all the best and may their noble deeds bring peace to the world.

Photo: 1)  THUPTEN GYATSO  2)  DAKPA SHERAB

On the date 9th, September 2010, more than 103 novices who came from remote areas of Himalayas, joined Shar Gaden Monastery seeking complete monastic education and knowledge of Buddha Dharma. Since their admission is confirmed, the monastery is taking whole responsibilities of their accommodation, health care, education, daily sustenance, provision of monks robe, supplement of education accessories and so forth. Similarly, the administrators have randomly selected senior monks equal number to the novices as personal teacher of the novices separately and with the completion of this allotment, the appointed personal teachers take all rest of the responsibilities and give him all kind of education when the usual puja sessions and regular classes are not in progressed.

All the novices are between the age of 7 to 14 and are from very poor family background, they have come here with the full consent from their respected parents even they have willingly sent their sons and motivated them to be good person unlike the allegation being made by Tibetan Exile Government or The Office of Dalai Lama that we kidnap minor children only with an intention to expand the numbers of troops which is hard to believe they have said such !