Sapan School
A chance to receive a modern education and a spiritual transmission to understand the world
A PLACE TO LEARN
The monastery teaches the main Buddhist ritualist education to the monks so that they may lead the annual Vajrakilaya ceremony, as well as five other important ceremonies. The students learn them by heart so they can recite them fluently. The monks also learn to play ritualistic instruments such as horns, trumpets and cymbals, and ritualistic arts such as measuring and creating sand mandalas, and making butter sculptures of offering cakes (gtor ma) and crafting thread-crosses (mdos).
Besides the main Buddhist ritualistic education, the monks are also provided with a modern education, from a pre-school level to class ninth, with their curriculum based on the Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration’s textbooks. The subjects taught include : Tibetan, Nepali, English, calligraphy, mathematics, social science, art, Tibetan grammar, Buddhist philosophy and Sakya Legshed (Elegant Sayings of Sakya Pandita) and others. Two examinations are conducted annually.
In addition to education, the monastery’s staff of around 25 great caring members provide the young monks with all the essential needs including food, clothing, accomodation and medical care, and also arranges for recreational activities during the annual holidays.
One of the greatest achievements of the Sakya Tsechen Thinley Dargye Ling monastery regarding education took place in 2014, when a group of monks from the monastery achieved outstanding results in the annual Vajrakilaya examination at the Sakya Monastery in Rajpur. His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin was present at that time and expressed great joy to the assembly and commented this achievement.