Sakya College

INTRODUCTION

The Sakya College is an institute of traditional Buddhist philosophical and scriptural studies where the ideals of Buddhist monasticism and rigorous scholarship are cultivated simultaneously.

First established in 1972, the College is registered in India under the Societies Act of 1860 and is the oldest school of its kind among the Tibetans in India and Nepal.

The main subjects taught and studied at the College are the basic Buddhist scriptures of India in their Tibetan translations. Special emphasis is laid on the commentaries and scholastic traditions of the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism.

The purpose of the College is to transmit these traditions of learning to the next generations, thus training the Sakya teachers of the future. This was and still remains a crucial task because traditional Buddhist education was destroyed in Tibet itself after the Chinese Communist invasion in 1959.

Many of the Sakya Tradition's learned scholars and teachers passed away during the crucial years of Tibetans' exile in India. The refugee population of Tibet have been scattered all over India, Nepal and many other foreign countries and are constantly upset by the hardships of a refugee's life. Such an unexpected drastic change from a quiet, peaceful life to the complexities of modern existence is a threat to the Tibetan culture and the pure lineage and traditional form of Buddhism. For these reasons, the initial and main aim of the College is to train enough qualified monks for our future generations.