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Monks debating during last year’s Winter Debate. April 2013: The Lama Tsong Khapa Teachers Fund offered US$22,396.26 for the 2012 Winter Debate (Jang Gun-choe). 635 of the top debaters from Sera Je traveled to Drepung Monastery to participate with 8,000 monks from 11 different monasteries. The main participating Institutes were Sera, Drepung, Gaden, Tashi Lhunpo, Gyuto, Gyudme, Rato and Dhakpo Shedrup Dhargeyling monasteries and they met to debate two sessions a day for a minimum of seven hours. Many monks debated until the wee hours of the night.
The Lama Tsong Khapa Teachers Fund covered the cost of travel and food for the 635 monks from Sera Je Monastery to attend the month-long debate.
Monks debating during last year’s Winter Debate. The Great Winter Debate has been an integral part Tibet Buddhism and dates back to the time of Lama TsongKhapa. The debate mainly consists of the most earnest and competent scholars from the great monasteries. The primary course of study during the Winter Debate is Pramanavartika (Tsema Namdrel) by Acharya Dharmakirti on subjects such as epistemology, valid cognition, dialectics, and the Art of Liberation.
Learn more about the Winter Debate.
The Lama Tsong Khapa Teachers Fund also offered a full set of monk’s robes to 27 top scholars who memorized Shantidava’s The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and an additional full set of robes to another 196 monks: 94 who successfully memorized The Essence of Eloquence (Dang-Nge), 91 who memorized The Clear Meaning of Paramita (Drelpa-Don-Sel), 10 who memorized Skab Dangpoi Spyi Don by Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen, and one who successfully memorized The Collection of Six Treaties on the Middle Way.
Ongoing improvements are made year round to Sera Je Monastery Kitchen through the Sera Je Food Fund. A new wood burning steam boiler was purchased for the Sera Je Kitchen to cut down on the usage of LPG gas cylinders. A new rice cooking vessel was also recently purchased.
You can donate any amount to these ongoing efforts.
A look at a typical daily offering of breakfast provided by the Sera Je Food Fund to the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
You can also view a typical day’s menu including breakfast and lunch.
Please take a moment to rejoice in this incredible offering of which you can be a part by donating any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund today.
A look at a typical week’s worth of lunches provided by the Sera Je Food Fund to all the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
You can also view a typical day’s menu including breakfast and lunch.
Please take a moment to rejoice in this incredible offering of which you can be a part by donating any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund today.
2010 Meeting of Geluk Committee in Nepal.April 2013: The Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund is very happy to be able to offer US$11,500 towards 2013 Special debate held in Nepal in August 2013.
This year the special debate will be held at Kopan Monastery for fifteen days. There will be 450 monks attending from ten different Gelug 
2010 Meeting of Geluk Committee in Nepal.monasteries in Nepal. These are the top debating students from each monastery. In addition this is the first time ever that nuns are participating in the special debate and there will be 90 nuns participating from two Gelug nunneries in Nepal, one of them being Kopan’s own Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.
This is the fifth year the special debate has been held in Nepal for the Gelug monasteries. Each year a different monastery hosts the actual debate.
For more information on the annual winter debate, its history, the texts debated and the overall incredible importance of the debate please read more here.
Please rejoice that we can make this offering and thank you to all the kind donors of the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund. The support given by FPMT’s Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund ensures that the Mahayana teachings are preserved for the benefit of all sentient beings and is critical to FPMT’s mission of transmitting and preserving the Mahayana Buddhist teachings worldwide.
You can also read Geshe Thubten Sherab’s account of a typical day at Sera Je Monastery here.
A look at a typical week’s worth of dinners provided by the Sera Je Food Fund to all the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
You can also view a typical day’s menu including breakfast and lunch.
Please take a moment to rejoice in this incredible offering of which you can be a part by donating any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund today.
Monday: Rice with vegetables.
Tuesday: Noodle soup.
Wednesday: Rice with tofu and vegetable. 
Thursday: Noodle soup. 
Friday: Vegetable biriyani with soup.
Saturday: Vegetable buns and soup. 
By donating any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund, you contribute to the daily offering of three healthy vegetarian meals prepared for and offered to all of the monks of Sera Je Monastery.
Please take a moment to rejoice in this incredible offering of which you can be a part by donating any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund today.
What Does a Meal for 2,600 Look Like?
Monks enjoying cutting the vegetables together.
Rejoice! The 3,000 monks of Sera Je Monastery are offering 9 days of prayers and pujas dedicated to all our kind and generous benefactors.
We have just received this letter from the Abbott of Sera Je Monastery thanking Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT and all the benefactors of the Sera Je Food Fund project.
Due to the kind and generous support of so many, FPMT has been able to offer food to all the Sangha at Sera Je Monastery now for the past 22 years. THANK YOU.
The Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund was very happy to support the Geluk International Foundation which is establishing an office at Ganden Monastery, Tibet, as well as accommodation for Ganden Tripa by donating $4,518 for two computers and office equipment and furniture.
Please read a letter of thanks from the President of the Geluk International Foundation.
The fund sponsored two 100 million mani retreats in 2012, one of which was dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life.
In addition to the 100 million mani retreats taking place over the next six months, the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund is offering all the cost of food to all the nuns for this period as well as the cost of a very qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lam-rim teachings. This is very important for the nuns’ studies. The retreat lasts three months and about seventy nuns participate. Each nun doing the recitations receives a small offering and the nunnery also receives an offering. This is the main means of support for the nuns and the nunnery.
100 Million Mani Retreats Sponsored
- 2009: One retreat sponsored during Saka Dawa
- 2010: One retreat sponsored during Saka Dawa
- 2011: One retreat sponsored during Saka Dawa
- 2012: Two retreats sponsored over Saka Dawa
- 2013: Two retreats sponsored from December 2012-June 2013 beginning on Lama Tsongkhapa Day
UPDATE April 2013: Lama Zopa Rinpoche just received this message from the Tashi Chime Gatsal Nuns who are currently doing their 2nd 100 million mani retreat. More….
If you would like to contribute to to Rinpoche’s ongoing commitment to sponsor these 100 million mani retreats:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for 100 Million Mani Retreats
This is the beginning of actualizing one of Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT which he explained in 2007: Sponsoring 100 Million Mani Retreats.
As Rinpoche explained:
“[I would like] for the organization to establish 100,000 recitations of 100 Million Om Mani Padme Hum. This can be retreats of 100 million recitations, so 100,000 different retreats in different parts of the world where it can happen regularly, each year.
There are two ways to count this. One way is once it is established for it to happen regularly each year. Or it can happen in different places, one time, and you count it like that. Maybe they are unable to do regularly but able to do one time or a few times.
So to establish this in different parts of the world such as Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Australia, China etc.
We should create a plan on how to lead the retreat of 100 million Om Mani Padme Hums: What practices to do, a plan on how to schedule the retreat, the whole structure. Once you have a structure then it is easy for people to lead the retreat.
Also you can make mani pills in the retreats.
During the retreat it is a great thing if you also take the 8 Mahayana Precepts during the retreat. You can have lunch and breakfast, but no dinner. People can take precepts for the whole time or every alternative week. So this depends on the different places. I think to combine these two is extremely great.
Then it would be very good if the retreats are sponsored by the organization. Sometimes it can also be sponsored privately, all the expenses. But the idea is to start as a project and then for the whole organization to sponsor. Or to sponsor the food or lodging. Like a center hosting, making the retreat free for everyone. The idea is for it to be sponsored so people do not have to pay. Also if an individual person is doing 100 Million Om Mani Padme Hums then still the organization can sponsor the person.
There is one story about Geshe Thubten Sopa, he led 100 Million Om Mani Padme Hum retreat in the monastery. I think he is regarded as an incarnate Lama, this is not known in Sera, but actually he’s an incarnate Lama. The monastery in Ladakh respect and regard him as an incarnate Lama.
What happened is during the retreat, the mani pills multiplied and that inspired so many people, to have faith and because of that there are now many monasteries in Ladhak that are doing 100 Million Om Mani Padme Hum Retreats. So this is a great thing.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche on his Vast Vision for FPMT, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, CA, March 2007