Geshe
Encyclopedia
Geshe is a Tibetan Buddhist
academic degree
for monks. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug
lineage, but is also awarded in the Sakya
and Bön traditions.
masters such as Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1102-1176), who composed an important lojong
text called Seven Points of Mind Training and Geshe Langri Tangpa
(dGe-bshes gLang-ri Thang-pa, 1054-1123).
The geshe curriculum represents an adaptation of subjects studied at Indian Buddhist monastic universities such as Nālandā
. These centers disappeared around the time of Islam's arrival in India, leaving Tibet to continue the tradition. It first developed within the Sakya
monastic lineage, where it was known as ka-shi ("four subjects") or ka-chu ("ten subjects"). The Sakyas also granted degrees at the conclusion of these studies, on the basis of proficiency in dialectical ritualized debate
. In Tsongkhapa's time the Sakya degree was awarded at Sangphu, Kyormolung and Dewachen (later Ratö) monasteries.
The geshe degree flowered under the Gelug
monastic lineage. Under Gelug domination, monks from various monastic lineages would receive training as geshes through the great Gelug monasteries. Gelugpa geshes often went on to study at one of Lhasa's tantric colleges, Gyütö or Gyüme. (The tantric colleges also grant a "geshe" title for scholarship in the tantras.)
Under Sakya and Gelug influence, the Kagyu and Nyingma monastic lineages developed their own systems of scholarly education. Their schools grant the degree of ka-rabjampa ("one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures") as well as the title Khenpo
, which the Gelug tradition reserves for abbot
s. The course of study which prevails in Kagyu and Nyingma circles emphasizes commentary over debate, and focuses on a somewhat wider selection of classics (with accordingly less detail). It ideally lasts for nine years, concluding with a three-year, three-month meditation retreat.
The exoteric study of Buddhism is generally organized into "five topics", listed as follows with the primary Indian source texts for each:
, and is invariably taught through the medium of the Tibetan language
.
Each year an examination is held for those who have completed their studies. In it their performance is evaluated by the abbot of the particular college. The topics for their dialectical examination are drawn from the whole course of study and the topic to be debated is selected by the abbot on the spot, so that students have no chance to do specific preparation. Thus, it is a real test of a student's abilities and the depth of his study. At the conclusion the abbot assigns each candidate to a category of geshe according to his ability. There are four such categories, Dorampa, Lingtse, Tsorampa and Lharampa, Lharampa being the highest. After this, in order to qualify, the geshe candidates are not allowed to miss even one of the three daily debate sessions during the subsequent eight months.
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
academic degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
for monks. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug
Gelug
The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...
lineage, but is also awarded in the Sakya
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
and Bön traditions.
History
The title Geshe was first applied to esteemed KadampaKadampa
The Kadampa tradition was a Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist school. Dromtönpa, a Tibetan lay master and the foremost disciple of the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha , founded it and passed three lineages to his disciples. The Kadampa were quite famous and respected for their proper and earnest...
masters such as Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1102-1176), who composed an important lojong
Lojong
Lojong is a mind training practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on a set of aphorisms formulated in Tibet in the 12th century by Geshe Chekhawa...
text called Seven Points of Mind Training and Geshe Langri Tangpa
Langri Tangpa
Geshe Langri Tangpa is an important figure in the lineage of the Kadampa and Gelug schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Central Tibet, as Dorje Senge . His name derives from Langtang, the area in which he is said to have lived...
(dGe-bshes gLang-ri Thang-pa, 1054-1123).
The geshe curriculum represents an adaptation of subjects studied at Indian Buddhist monastic universities such as Nālandā
Nalanda
Nālandā is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India.The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from the fifth or sixth century CE to 1197 CE. It has been called "one of the...
. These centers disappeared around the time of Islam's arrival in India, leaving Tibet to continue the tradition. It first developed within the Sakya
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
monastic lineage, where it was known as ka-shi ("four subjects") or ka-chu ("ten subjects"). The Sakyas also granted degrees at the conclusion of these studies, on the basis of proficiency in dialectical ritualized debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
. In Tsongkhapa's time the Sakya degree was awarded at Sangphu, Kyormolung and Dewachen (later Ratö) monasteries.
The geshe degree flowered under the Gelug
Gelug
The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...
monastic lineage. Under Gelug domination, monks from various monastic lineages would receive training as geshes through the great Gelug monasteries. Gelugpa geshes often went on to study at one of Lhasa's tantric colleges, Gyütö or Gyüme. (The tantric colleges also grant a "geshe" title for scholarship in the tantras.)
Under Sakya and Gelug influence, the Kagyu and Nyingma monastic lineages developed their own systems of scholarly education. Their schools grant the degree of ka-rabjampa ("one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures") as well as the title Khenpo
Khenpo
The term khenpo is a spiritual degree given in Tibetan Buddhism. In the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya traditions, the title is awarded usually after a period of 3 years of intensive study after secondary school level studies, and is considered much like a spiritual Bachelor's. Similar titles of lower...
, which the Gelug tradition reserves for abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
s. The course of study which prevails in Kagyu and Nyingma circles emphasizes commentary over debate, and focuses on a somewhat wider selection of classics (with accordingly less detail). It ideally lasts for nine years, concluding with a three-year, three-month meditation retreat.
Curriculum
The Geshe curriculum consists of the "Collected Topics" which were preliminary to the syllabus proper, as well as the five major topics, which form the syllabus proper.The exoteric study of Buddhism is generally organized into "five topics", listed as follows with the primary Indian source texts for each:
- AbhidharmaAbhidharmaAbhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...
(Higher Knowledge, Wylie Tib.: mdzod)- Compendium of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharma Samuccaya) by AsangaAsangaAsaṅga was a major exponent of the Yogācāra tradition in India, also called Vijñānavāda. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the founders of this school...
- Treasury of Higher KnowledgeAbhidharma-kosaAbhidharma-kośa is a key text in verse written in Sanskrit by Vasubandhu. It summarizes Sarvāstivādin tenets in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses...
(Abhidharma Kośa) by VasubandhuVasubandhuVasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school. However, some scholars consider Vasubandhu to be two distinct people. Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism...
- Compendium of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharma Samuccaya) by Asanga
- Prajñā Pāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom, Wylie Tib.: phar-phyin)
- Ornament of Clear RealizationAbhisamayalankaraThe ' , abbreviated AA, is one of five Sanskrit-language Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures which Maitreya--a Buddha or bodhisattva --is said to have revealed to Asaga...
(Abhisamayālaṃkāra) by MaitreyaMaitreyaMaitreya , Metteyya , or Jampa , is foretold as a future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he or she is referred to as Ajita Bodhisattva.Maitreya is a bodhisattva who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on...
as related to Asaṅga - The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, Wylie Tib.: sPyod-‘jug) by ŚāntidevaShantidevaShantideva was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar at Nalanda University and an adherent of the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nagarjuna....
- Ornament of Clear Realization
- MadhyamakaMadhyamakaMadhyamaka refers primarily to a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of Buddhist philosophy systematized by Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the āgamas...
(Middle Way, Wylie Tib.: dbu-ma)- Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Wylie Tib.: rTsa dbu-ma)MulamadhyamakakarikaThe Mūlamadhyamakakārikā , or Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, is a key text by Nagarjuna, one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.-Competing interpretations:...
' by NāgārjunaNagarjunaNāgārjuna was an important Buddhist teacher and philosopher. Along with his disciple Āryadeva, he is credited with founding the Mādhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism... - Four Hundred Verses on the Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas (Catuḥśataka) by ĀryadevaAryadevaAryadeva , was a disciple of Nagarjuna and author of several important Mahayana Madhyamaka Buddhist texts. He is also known as Kanadeva the 15th patriarch in the Zen tradition and Bodhisattva Deva in Sri Lanka where he was born as the son of a king. Some Chinese sources however, suggest he was...
- Introduction to the Middle WayMadhyamakāvatāraMadhyamakāvatāra is a text by Candrakirti on the Middle Way school . It is a commentary on the meaning of Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and also the Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra...
(Madhyamakāvatāra, Wylie Tib.: ‘’dBu-ma-la ‘Jug-pa) by CandrakīrtiCandrakīrtiCandrakīrti , was an Indian scholar and a khenpo of Nālandā Mahāvihāra. He was a disciple of and a commentator on his works and those of his main disciple, Āryadeva... - Ornament of the Middle Way (Madhyamakālaṃkāra) by ŚāntarakṣitaShantarakshita' was a renowned 8th century Indian Buddhist Brahmin and abbot of Nalanda University. Śāntarakṣita founded the philosophical school known as Yogacara-Svatantrika-Madhyamaka, which united the Madhyamaka tradition of Nagarjuna, the Yogacara tradition of Asanga and the logical and epistemological...
- The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, Wylie Tib.: sPyod-‘jug) by ŚāntidevaShantidevaShantideva was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar at Nalanda University and an adherent of the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nagarjuna....
- Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Wylie Tib.: rTsa dbu-ma)
- LogicPramanaPramana is an epistemological term in Hindu and Buddhist dialectic, debate and discourse.Pramāṇavāda and Hetuvidya can be glossed in English as Indian and Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, respectively.-In Hinduism:...
(pramāṇa Wylie Tib.: tshad-ma)- Treatise on Valid Cognition (Pramāṇavarttika) by DharmakīrtiDharmakirtiDharmakīrti , was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic. He was one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, according to which the only items considered to exist are momentary states of consciousness.-History:Born around the turn of the 7th century,...
- Compendium on Valid Cognition (Pramāṇasamuccaya) by DignāgaDignagaDignāga was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian logic.He was born into a Brahmin family in Simhavakta near Kanchi Kanchipuram), and very little is known of his early years, except that he took as his spiritual preceptor Nagadatta of the Vatsiputriya school, before being...
- Treatise on Valid Cognition (Pramāṇavarttika) by Dharmakīrti
- Vowed MoralityVinayaThe Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
(vinaya, Wylie Tib.:' dul-ba)- The Root of the Vinaya (Vinaya-mūla-sūtra, Dülwa Do Tsawa, Wylie Tib.: dul-ba mdo rtsa-ba) by the Pandita Gunaprabha
Conferral of the Degree
In the Gelug school, the degree may not be earned by laymen (though some monk recipients later give up their robes), or by women (including nuns). The Gelug curriculum, which lasts between 12 and 20 years, centers around textual memorization and ritualized debateDebate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
, and is invariably taught through the medium of the Tibetan language
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
.
Each year an examination is held for those who have completed their studies. In it their performance is evaluated by the abbot of the particular college. The topics for their dialectical examination are drawn from the whole course of study and the topic to be debated is selected by the abbot on the spot, so that students have no chance to do specific preparation. Thus, it is a real test of a student's abilities and the depth of his study. At the conclusion the abbot assigns each candidate to a category of geshe according to his ability. There are four such categories, Dorampa, Lingtse, Tsorampa and Lharampa, Lharampa being the highest. After this, in order to qualify, the geshe candidates are not allowed to miss even one of the three daily debate sessions during the subsequent eight months.
External links
- Topics Studied from Tibet.com
- Geshe George Dreyfus on Monastic Studies
- The Geshe Degree Origin of the Geshe Degree The Government of Tibet in Exile