10 monks pass highest Tibetan Buddhism exam

Ten monks passed the annual debate defense exam and were accredited as Geshe Lharampas - the highest academic degrees of the Tibetan Buddhism - at Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, on Thursday.

The 10 new Geshe Lharampas are from 10 different key monasteries in the Tibet autonomous region.

Geshe Lharampa represents the highest level of attainment of monks of Tibetan Buddhism.

The annual exam usually has the candidates seated, with the exam board members standing and walking among them. When one candidate raises a point, the exam board members will counter to keep the debate going on. If the candidate wins the debate, he passes the exam.

Ngagwang Ziji, from Drepung Monastery, won first place on Thursday.

He said to pass the exams took him more than 30 years of hard study and five major exams.

"First I want to pay my great appreciation to my masters who have been leading me in the right direction, and secondly to my study mates who supported me in the course of my growing up," said the 46-year-old.

"What I achieved today only means a small progress for me, and I will regard this as an encouragement to myself, and I will continue to work hard," he said.

"I wish Buddhism will be prosperous, all living beings are free of disasters, and the global world has no war."

"To qualify as a candidate for the Geshe Lharampa exam," he said, "One has to take years of studies in the five major sciences, which are arts, medicine, linguistics, logic and philosophy."

He said he has been apprenticed to seven masters and high-ranking monks from different schools of Tibetan monasteries to obtain learning.

"Three of the masters — the Lamrim Rinpoche, Chophel Namgyal, Lobsang Tenzen — are my main scripture teachers," he said.

At the age of 16, Ngagwang Ziji became an ordained monk at the Drepung Monastery, one of the three key Gelukpa monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism in Lhasa.

According to the Geshe Lharampa office of Jokhang Temple — organizer of the event — this was the 10th round of exams since 2004, when the event first began at the temple.

"Obtaining this position means one already has a profound understanding of the 'Five Volumes of Tibetan Buddhist Teachings'."