A Study On The Educational System Of Labrang Monastery

Tibetan Buddhist monastic education has a gradual, continuous innovative, and gradually improved development process, and the six famous monasteries of the Gelug Sect is its most complete and perfect representatives. As one of the six major monasteries of the Gelug Sect, Labrang Monastery developed rapidly by the efforts of each generations of Jamyang Masters and many senior monks, also with support of the Henan Mongolian Prince since the establishment. After that, its affiliated temples spread across Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and many other areas, it becomes the Buddhism center of Amdo region. Although it’s the last established one of the six famous monasteries, this monastery’s education system is better than any other big monasteries, and it is the best one in the six major monasteries at present.The Labrang Monastery’s education system is complete and systematic. It consists six institutes, the Hearing and Thought Institute is the only one for Exoteric Buddhism, the rests as Lower Vajrayana Institutes, Kalachakra Institutes, Medical School, School of Hevajra, the Upper Vajrayana Institutes are all Tantric College. They established as the great Gelugpa monasteries in Lhasa, Tantra School, Medicine school and other monastery for models in the beginning. The Labrang Monastery recueillirs many monasteries’education system together, it can be called as a comprehensive large monastery.This paper is divided into four chapters according to time context, it analyzed the developmental and evolutionary process of Tibetan Buddhist monastery Education and Labrang Monastery education, then explore the education system of Labrang Monastery comprehensively.Chapterl, The formation of the Gelug Sect’s monastic education of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan Buddhist Pre-prosperous Period in Tubo time is the initial phase. Originated from Samye Monastery, college of preaching opened around the translation of Buddhist scriptures; and with the collapse of the Tubo royal family, Tibetan area went into the separating period for about 400 years, it was called the Tibetan Buddhist "Post Prosperous Period" and various sects had been emerged and developed, Tibetan Buddhism entered into a thriving time. It was also the restoration period of the monastic education, study of the Five Large Theories formed as the rise of tsema, while Qiaba Qieji Sengge’reform and innovation played a key role, it has epoch-making significance in the history of Tibetan Buddhist monastic education. Secondly, in the era of Tsongkhapa, along with the establishment of the Gelug Sect and the Master’s reform for the monastic education, a systematic teaching institution for the Five Large Theories was established. Then the three major monasteries in Lhasa had been created so that the monastic education got improvement and flourish.Chapter2, Overview of the Labrang Monastery’s each college. It’s a brief description about the establishment history of the monastery by Jamyang master and his disciples; and the history of the Hearing and Thought Institute, the Lower Vajrayana Institutes, the Kalachakra Institutes, the Medical School, the School of Hevajra and the Upper Vajrayana Institutes.Chapter3, the education system of Labrang Monastery. This section is a core part of this article. From many aspects as the organization, teaching system, teaching content, teaching time, teaching methods, examination system and academic degree system, it deeply discussed the education system and the characteristics of the Monastery’s six colleges.Chapter4, the cultural origins of Tibetan Buddhist monastic education and article summary. This chapter first collated through many Chinese and Tibetan literature data, then explored and analyzed the Tibetan Buddhist monastic education’s cultural origins-----Indian monastic education and its influence. Secondly, the thesis summarized the article from the organization, learning System, teaching materials, teaching methods, examination system and the academic degree system. At last, evaluated and analyzed the Labrang Monastery’s education system.