Round about a grove of greenish rasberry trees,
Whose shiny leaves studded with reddish-yellow berries,
There snugly nestles the charming monastery of Sera,
Whose wheel of Dharma turns soundly as ever.

The time has wearily rolled in five hundreds and a seventy,
Which indeed is a lengthy period of years,
Sere marches on as the rising of the new moon,
Do I say these words for the prosperity of her future soon.

Thus the Sera one of the Four Great Monasteries of the Gelupa Sect, the Order of Excellence, lies in this worldly known as the " sunny city" of Lhasa. Five hundred and seventy-five years have passed since its founding by Jamchen Choje, a close disciple of Tsongkapa, in the year 1419, during which it had experienced manyups and downs concerning its monk population, studies, administration, construction and economic foundation, etc.
Ever since the third plenary session of the 11th party congress of China and owing to the correctness of the Party's policy on religion, many monasteries have managed to take shape again. This monastery, in the like manner, has taken to construction and reconstruction for years, and as a result the monks, elders and youngers a like, are presently at ease in their studies and life. So is my brief information of the past and present of Sera, which is essential for the people at home and abroad to be understood.

The Founding of Sera

The landscape of the monastery's location is believed to have the feature of the Eight Auspicious Symbols: the mountain at he back is said to be the symbol of the Banner of Victory; the pointy mountain to the right, the conch-shell with anti-clockwise spirals; the back mountain of the Chusang Hermitage, the pinnacle; the Newchung-ri Hill to the left, the Fish.
The hermitages Choding, Sera-tse, Raka Dak, etc. situated at the back of Sera were the places where Tsongkapa had done his meditations. These were the places where Tsongkapa had first met his great disciple, Kedup Je. These were the places where Tsongkapa had written his works on "the Avoidance of Extremes". It was the hermitage of Choding where Tsongkapa had met with four highly envoys sent by the Emperor Yongle of the Dynasty, in 1408, to invite him to Beijing. It was the hermitage of Choding where the opening ceremony for the construction of the Me College was held.
It was because of the monastry's being surrounded by a grove of rasberry trees, the name "the rasberry monastery" or "Sera" came into existence. It was at this time when Jamchen Choje formerly built this monastery after his return from the Ming Dynasty, in Beijing. as he went there as the personal representative of Tsongkapa.