The Gaden Shartse Monastery In Exile Today

Gaden Shartse Monkas and Gaden Shartse Debate Hall,  January 2007

In‑depth education in all aspects of Buddhist philosophy and practice is the focal point of the academic program at Shartse. The duration of the monastic program is 24 years. The students interact with their teachers on a daily basis. Accommodation, food, and instruction are all free, provided by the monastic administration.

Shartse offers complete basic courses in Tibetan History, Literature, Poetry, Grammar, English, and Mathematics, which are studied as prerequisites for the more advanced courses of Elementary Dialectics, Buddhist Logic, The Six Perfections, the Prajnaparamita (the study of Wisdom/ the Heart Sutra), Madhyamika (Middel Way) Philosophy, Vinaya (Ethics), and Abidharma (Epistomology). Unique to Shartse, it is also compulsory to study Buddhist Tantra. Additionally, there are optional subjects such as Painting, Calligraphy, Tailoring, Tibetan Butter Sculpture formation, and Sand mandala creation. The training program also encourages its students to independently pursue and practice profound Buddhist rituals and to complete extensive solitary retreats. The Monastery hosts multiple festivals, seminars, inter­monastic philosophical meetings, and active fieldwork.

All members sixteen and older are given fieldwork assignments for four months of every year during which time they are required to contribute to the day‑to‑day running of the monastery. Such co‑operative jobs include secretarial office work, cooking, milking the cows, clinic management, and general maintenance. Contributing financially to the local economy, the Monastery also hires some of the local Indian residents to assist with construction and farm work.

Shartse has a staff of twenty, sixteen of whom are teachers and four of whom oversee the proper administration of the programs. Aside from the two English language and mathematics teachers who are recruited from outside the Monastery, every member of the staff has himself graduated from the Monastery. They teach an average of seven hours a day and offer private instruction from their own living quarters. For more than twenty years, they have provided this service free of charge. Only recently did the New Educational Development Project begin to offer them a token remuneration of what is the equivalent of US$4.00 each month.

Teachers play a very special role in the lives of their students. As is the Tibetan tradition and due to the early age at which many youths leave their families to join the Monastery, students admire and respect their teachers as they would their parents. Teachers are considered to be the source of both academic and spiritual development for their students.

The administration of the Monastery is two‑fold. Following the democratic constitution promulgated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1964, all Tibetan College institutions now function as parts of a democratic government. Although privately administered, the College is also administered on an election basis. There are eight board members who are elected as directors every three years.

The President of the College, however, is appointed directly by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as was done in pre‑invasion Tibet.

A world tour by members of Shartse in 1988 enabled the administration to begin the new Education Development Project. This interagency body now monitors all educational development and makes suggestions regarding the necessity of improvements and modernization.

Additionally, a few senior students are elected to oversee a library at the Monastery that is open to both students and non‑students. With a modest collection of important Tibetan works and Western works of philosophy, the library is accessible free of charge.

In order to feed, house, clothe, and provide study materials for each monk, it costs just over US$1 per day per monk. For 1600 monks, this amounts to close to US$1700 per day, or approximately US$600,000 per year. This expense is for the most basic necessities and does not cover the costs of building maintenance, construction, farming, or any improvements.

Maintenance is the most costly aspect of running Gaden Shartse Monastic College. The original 84 acres of farmland that was allocated to the monks in 1969 was done so as a lease, and provides the bulk of the Monastery's income. The main source of income for the Monastery comes from the sale of rice grown on the leased farmland. When most profitable, the yearly revenue from the crops can only cover one month of the expenses of the Monastery.

With this acute shortfall in cash, short‑term loans are arranged from time to time. Unlike other active educational centers of its size in India, Shartse does not receive any government funding from India or abroad. The need to fulfill the financial obligations of the Monastery is urgent. There are very limited and unreliable sources of income, and the majority of revenue comes from tours abroad.

© 2005 Gaden Shartse Monastery  All Rights Reserved

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