Jetsa Regional House Headquarters
(byes tsha)

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Images of Jetsa Regional House Headquarters

THL Reference Number: s003

College Affiliation: Jé (byes)

Regional House Affiliation: Jetsa (byes tsha)

The Tsa Regional House (tsha khang tshan) of Jé College (grwa tshang byes), or Jetsa (byes tsha) for short, is one of the largest regional houses of this college. Most of the structures have been preserved intact. No original statues/artifacts remain in the regional house temple, however; all images are new. According to the present disciplinarian (dge skos) of Sera (se ra), Geshé Jampa Yeshé (dge bshes byams pa ye shes), this regional house was the original the site of one of the early colleges of Sera – Dromteng (’brom steng) – which was absorbed into Jé College at an early date.

Tradition has it that Taok (tha ’og), the protector deity of Mé College (grwa tshang smad), originally belonged to this regional house, and only afterwards “migrated up” to Sera Mé (se ra smad), which is located just north, and up the hill from, this regional house. The monks of this regional house pride themselvses on the fact that the deity originally belonged to them.

Drakri Rinpoché’s (brag ri or sba ri rin po che) residential quarters were on the top floor of the regional house temple. This important incarnation lineage dates to the eighteenth century. The present Drakri Rinpoché (b. 1956) is based in Sera-India. Jetsa Regional House has produced at least one holder of the throne of Ganden (dga’ ldan khri pa), blo bzang bstan pa (b. 1725), the sixtieth throne-holder. Jetsa was also the home regional house of Lama Tupten Yeshé (bla ma thub bstan ye shes), who (with his student Lama Zopa Rinpoché [bla ma bzod pa rin po che]) was the charismatic founder of what is today the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization of Buddhist centers that span the globe.

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