Geshe
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 Tibetan Buddhism
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Geshe (Tib. dge shes, "spiritual friend"; cognate of Skt. kalyanamitra) is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks. The degree may not be earned by laymen (though some monk recipients later give up their robes), or by women (including nuns). The curriculum, which lasts between 12 to 20 years, centers around textual memorization and ritualized debate, and is invariably taught through the medium of the Tibetan language.
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[edit] History
The Geshe degree was originally a feature of the Kadam school of Tibetan Buddhism, and is now awarded in the Sakya (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་; Wylie: sa skya) and Geluk (Tibetan: དགེ་ལུགས་; Wylie: dge lugs) schools. However, disciples from all schools attend the huge monastic universities usually belonging to the Gelug tradition. The scholarly tradition of the Kagyü (Tibetan: བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་; Wylie: bka' brgyud) and Nyingma (Tibetan: རྙིང་མ་; Wylie: rnying ma) schools grant the degree of Ka-rabjampa, which means "one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures", as well as the title "Khenpo" (Tibetan: མཁན་པོ་; Wylie: mkhan po), which in the Gelug tradition connotes abbotship of a monastery.
The first Tibetan tradition to award a degree at the conclusion of the course of studies were the Sakyas which was also granted on the basis of proficiency in dialectical debate. The Sakya degree was called the Ka-shi - four subjects, or Ka-chu - ten subjects. In Tsongkhapa's time the Sakya degree was awarded at Sangphu, Kyormolung and Dewachen (later Ratö) monasteries.
[edit] Curriculum
The Geshe curriculum of the "Collected Topics" (Tibetan: བསྡུས་གྲྭ་; Wylie: bsdus grwa) which were preliminary to the syllabus proper, as well as the five major topics, which form the syllabus proper.
Gelugpa recipients often went on to study at one of Lhasa's tantric colleges, Gyuto or Gyume. The tantric colleges also grant a "geshe" title for scholarship in the tantras.
[edit] Conferral of the Degree
Each year an examination held for those who have completed their studies, in which their performance is evaluated by the abbot of the particular college. The topics for their dialectical examination are drawn from the whole course of study, so students are unable to do any specific preparation because the topic to be debated is selected by the abbot on the spot. Thus, it is a real test of a student's abilities and the depth of his study. At the conclusion the abbot assigns each candidate to a category of geshe according to his ability. There are four such categories, Dorampa, Lingtse, Tsorampa and Lharampa, Lharampa being the highest. After this, in order to qualify, the geshe candidates are not allowed to miss even one of the three daily debate sessions during the subsequent eight months.
[edit] External links
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