The ruins at the site of Sera Gönpasar Hermitage (Sera Gönpasar Ritrö)

The words gönpa sar mean “new monastery.” The site obviously received its name when a monastery or hermitage (ritrö) was first built there, and then the name simply stuck. The hermitage belonged to the lamas of the Gönpasar incarnation lineage. It was founded as a Geluk hermitage by the first Gönpasar incarnation Ngawang Döndrup (Gönpasar Kutreng Dangpo Ngawang Döndrup).1 It seems that there were thirteen fully ordained monks that formed the ritual core of the institution before 1959.2

Today the entire site is in ruins, and while the shapes of certain buildings can be discerned from the foundations and fragments of walls that remain, we have no idea of what these various structures actually were. The site contains at least one large stūpa, and many carved boulders and/or self-arisen images (rangjön). Apart from this, there is little more that we can say about this hermitage at the present time.

The ruins of a large stūpa at the site.

A large boulder with carvings or self-arisen images on its surface.

Note: The glossary is organized into sections according to the main language of each entry. The first section contains Tibetan words organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. To jump to the entries that begin with a particular Tibetan root letter, click on that letter below. Columns of information for all entries are listed in this order: THL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the term, the English translation, the Sanskrit equivalent, associated dates, and the type of term. To view the glossary sorted by any one of these rubrics, click on the corresponding label (such as “Phonetics”) at the top of its column.