Visit to Serthar and the Larung Institute
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Before the start of the summer intensive, I had the great fortune to spend time in Yunnan and Sichuan. These two provinces include much of eastern Kham and bits of Amdo. So I was able to visit Tibetan areas such as Gyalthang, Dechen, Lithang, Dardo, Minyak, among others. However, one of the most special places I visited was Serthar. I had never heard of Serthar (Tib: གསེར་ཐར། Ch: 色达) before but was lucky enough to have a travelling companion who had. She suggested we go there and so we did. What makes Serthar so remarkable is the Larung Institute for the Five Traditional Sciences and Higher Buddhist Studies (Tib: བླ་རུང་ལྔ་རིག་ནང་བསྟན་སློབ་གླིང་། Ch: 五明佛学院 ) founded by the great Jigme Phuntsok, a renown Nyingmapa Terton. Larung is a massive monastic complex which houses around 40,000 monks, nuns, as well as some lay practitioners - all of whom study, live, and practice together. It is truly enormous! Immediately upon arrival at Larung, my impression was that th...