Sershul Monastery སེར་ཤུལ་དགོན་པ།

Sershul/ Shiqu Serchul or Dzachuka is located the bordering of Qinghai and Sichuan province. It’s about 135km east from Jyekundo(Yushu) and 220km west of Manigango. Sershul is found at the upper reaches of Yalong river. The Sershul town itself is not a interesting place, but the outskirt of the town has many nomads people herdering their yaks and sheep. Sershul Monastery. This is an important Gelupa monastery lies on the beautiful hillside from where you can see the opening valley. This is the biggest monastery in Sershul area which hosts more than 500 monks at the present. There were 1500monks in it’s peak in early 19th century. There is a village opposite the monastery where you can have some basic food and there were one guesthouse at the end of this one street village which is extremely basic. Sershul Monastery has six existing temples, most of which are fairly well preserved since before 1949. The largest temple, which is more than 300 years old, contains two great chanting halls devoted to Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug Order. It also contains many precious relics including one of Je Tsongkhapa’s teeth preserved within a sacred small stupa in the upper gallery and also kept a collection of rare sacred Buddhist objects, like the wooden block and hammer used during the initiation and penance ceremonies of monks at the Nalanda University in India at the time of Gautama Buddha – some of the objects having a history of more than 2,000 years. and also has many valuable sacred relics left by eminent monks after their deaths. Examples are for instance when Trinley Norbu lama died in 1995, a mark was left on his skull in the image Vajrapani. In 1997 when Triwa Lobsang lama died, an image of Arya Tara was left on his heart.  The best accommodation in this area is the Tibetan style Sershul Monastery guesthouse which  located right foot of the monastery, no shower but facilities and beddings are relatively clean. This monastery annually holds Monlam Festival or Prayer Festival and Buddhist teachings by the head of this Monastery in October. This is great time to visit this monastery, the monastery offers tents, blankets, food, tea for free for anyone come from outside. You will see many Tibetan nomads from Jyekundo(Yushu),Dege,Nagchu in Tibetan Autonomous Region to attend this week long Prayer Festival.