Tibetan monks prepare for annual Buddhism exam

Special Report: Focus on Tibet

LHASA, Jan. 5 (Chinese media) -- Monks from Tibet's leading

monasteries have gathered to prepare for an annual tryout in Lhasa, hoping to

get the highest academic degree of Tibetan Buddhism.

Three-hundred thirty-one monks from the Sera, Drepung

and Ganden monasteries and the Jokhang Temple attended a 14-day sutra review

session at a monastery about 30 kilometers from downtown Lhasa, where they

discussed the precise interpretations of the Buddhist sutra and simulated oral

exams.

The session, which began Dec. 30, will prepare the

monks for the formal dissertation for Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic

degree for the Gelugba School -- also known as the Yellow Sect -- of Tibetan

Buddhism, in spring.

The date of the formal dissertation is undecided.

The dissertation and the pre-exam review session is

nearly 1,000 years old. It was suspended for 16 years following a riot started

by separatists in 1988.

Twenty-two monks have been awarded Geshe Lharampa

since the exam was restored in 2004.