31 Jan 2012
7 min 28 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
Geshé Sopa discusses his final years in Tibet and completing his Geshé degree in India.
- India
- Sera Monastery
- Jose Cabezon: So you didn't get an opportunity to finish your studies in Tibet.
- Geshe Sopa: Yeah, I was then rikchen...secondary rikchen finished...then....
- Geshe Sopa: no...rikchen finished,
- Geshe Sopa: then I was able to...that time
- Geshe Sopa: they say Khenpo Losang Wangchuk la
- Geshe Sopa: and his, my class is in his, sometimes years and years, [you] have to wait
- Geshe Sopa: Lharam zindra (Tib. lha ram 'dzin drwa), these zindra,
- Geshe Sopa: some special classes which is the preparation for this big geshe...
- Geshe Sopa: they are different classes,
- Geshe Sopa: when they finished, [they were] sent there, put there,
- Geshe Sopa: so there were many, many higher classes,
- Geshe Sopa: somehow different classes,
- Geshe Sopa: so therefore I was somehow after that,
- Geshe Sopa: then rikchen, and
- Geshe Sopa: I have already started vinaya, a little bit,
- Geshe Sopa: then put there in this lharam zindra.
- Geshe Sopa: and then, so therefore [the] lharam zindra one,
- Geshe Sopa: that is the geshes, lharam geshes,
- Geshe Sopa: only those who are going to be lharam, lharampa, and tsokrampa (Tib. tshogs ram pa),
- Geshe Sopa: they...first ranking and second ranking,
- Geshe Sopa: those are gathered together in lharam zindra.
- Geshe Sopa: So they are [the] preparation for the...this kind of geshe,
- Geshe Sopa: but they have to wait whatever...first their...class,
- Geshe Sopa: above my class, whoever [is] left there, they have to finish,
- Geshe Sopa: then come to my class, like that way.
- Geshe Sopa: From my class, only we have lharam zindra, four monks or something like that.
- Geshe Sopa: The rest of them were down there.
- Geshe Sopa: So anyway, then lharam zindra,
- Geshe Sopa: almost I finished quite a bit,
- Geshe Sopa: two years, two...three years,
- Geshe Sopa: I think in lharam zindra, I think I was there, I stayed there,
- Geshe Sopa: and then, waiting to lharam geshe,
- Geshe Sopa: and just before that, then,
- Geshe Sopa: Chinese Communists invaded, invasion comes.
- Geshe Sopa: Then I wasn't able to finish there.
- Geshe Sopa: But I haven't given lharam zindra,
- Geshe Sopa: and I'm all this rank, just only to actually [indecipherable] in Lhasa, with the competition,
- Geshe Sopa: that is not happened.
- Jose Cabezon: So you finished all of your studies.
- Geshe Sopa: All others I finished them, ready to...
- Jose Cabezon: Final examination.
- Geshe Sopa: Final, that's all.
- Geshe Sopa: Then I haven't done that, so then...
- Geshe Sopa: Of course in India, when everybody escaped to India,
- Geshe Sopa: then the first Buxador...established,
- Geshe Sopa: Sera, Drepung, Ganden, all of these
- Geshe Sopa: and the Dalai Lama established this system,
- Geshe Sopa: the most Tibetan high culture,
- Geshe Sopa: religious culture and philosophy culture,
- Geshe Sopa: so this is [the] most important so therefore he established in monasteries.
- Geshe Sopa: So there, and not only that later,
- Geshe Sopa: geshe, geshe degree, that kind of examiniation and geshe degree,
- Geshe Sopa: that system what we had there, Lhasa, [the] same kind of system established in India.
- Geshe Sopa: So then that first year, the Bodhagaya Dorjeden,
- Geshe Sopa: they did a Monlam festival there.
- Geshe Sopa: First year, one above me, one geshe, Du Galok [sp?],
- Geshe Sopa: who was there and that year he got the geshe degree.
- Geshe Sopa: Then the next year I was,
- Geshe Sopa: also in this monastery, I had the lharam geshe, okay?
- Geshe Sopa: then the following year, I think Geshe Rapten,
- Geshe Sopa: like that, right? In India, almost the same kind of thing.
- Jose Cabezon: And, how did you first come to the United States?
- Geshe Sopa: Oh, the United States, and then,
- Geshe Sopa: when I got to...from India, in India,
- Geshe Sopa: and then Dalhousie, you know? Dalhousie refugee camp,
- Geshe Sopa: with Kamlung and we stayed there,
- Geshe Sopa: several lamas, Drepung lama, Ganden lama, we are all senior ones,
- Geshe Sopa: many of them [indecipherable] Dalhousie,
- Geshe Sopa: Dalhousie is a nice place, cool and high mountains
- Geshe Sopa: so we stayed there, 1960...1959 we escaped and we got to Dalhousie,
- Geshe Sopa: and then there, until 1962, I was there,
- Geshe Sopa: and waiting [for] this geshe degree.
- Geshe Sopa: Because first, Geshe Galok has to go,
- Geshe Sopa: and before, even the first years, no geshe, and later [it was] established.
- Geshe Sopa: So anyway, I was there and,
- Geshe Sopa: I have no hope any geshe at [indecipherable]...of course no geshe,
- Geshe Sopa: but I started all these things, happened...but only name of geshe lharampa that happened,
- Geshe Sopa: but then established these kind of things,
- Geshe Sopa: and then next year, my turn.
- Geshe Sopa: So then I have to go to...from Dalhousie to Buxador to defend, to defend.
- Geshe Sopa: So that means you have to study, you learn, study,
- Geshe Sopa: rereading, and all these, you...various things.
- Geshe Sopa: So then during the Dalhousie I want to stay, little preparation,
- Geshe Sopa: I did one...at least one year.
- Geshe Sopa: Then I went down from there to Buxador.
- Geshe Sopa: But the same year I left,
- Geshe Sopa: yeah, same year I went to America,
- Geshe Sopa: that was in 1962, beginning of 1962 down there, my geshe degree is that time.
Loading ... Collection:
Subcollection
- Religion in Tibet
- Monasteries
- Sera - Geshe Sopa Interview
- Sera Monastery
- Geshe Sopa Interview
Referenced Places
- India
- Sera Monastery
Recording Location
- Wisconsin
Language
- English
Interviewer:
Jose Cabezon
Contributing Interviewee:
Geshé Lhundub Sopa
Contributing Translator:
Eveline Yang
Publisher:
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Data Entry:
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Shanti AV Id:
1422
thlib.org
1267
Versions:
Date Created:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
30412 (KB)
Data Rate:
496 (kbps)
Frame Size:
360x272
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_ijvqezph
Format Id Source:
Kaltura.com
Annotation:
LANGUAGE INFO Speech Type: Interview Situation Method: interviews MASTER TAPE INFO Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 1969-01-01