The Treasury of Lives

Sera Tekchen Ling is one of the three main Geluk monasteries in Lhasa. It was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe, a disciple of Tsongkhapa. Three monastic colleges survive: Sera Me, Sera Je, and the Ngakpa Dratsang. Above the monastery are a number of important hermitages established by Tsongkhapa and other Geluk masters. These include Sera Utse, Pabongkha, and Purbuchok.

Sera Utse, also known as Drubkhang hermitage, is a hermitage located to the north above Sera Monastery, a major Geluk monastery in central Tibet. It was founded in 1705 by Drubkhang Gelek Gyatso in a location where Tsongkhapa is said to have engaged in retreat.

Sera Je was founded by Lodro Rinchen Sengge, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, in the fifteenth century. It is one of three colleges of Sera Monastery, a major Geluk monastery in central Tibet. It is one of two philosophical colleges, though the two colleges, Sera Me and Je, consolidated their curricula and administration in the 1990s. Sera Je is the largest college of Sera and traditionally housed monks from eastern Tibet and Mongolia. It is famous for its debate courtyard, as well as a for its assembly hall, which contains an altar to Hayagrīva that is popular with pilgrims.

Sera Me, built in 1419, is one of three monastic colleges of Sera Monastery, a major Geluk monastery in central Tibet. Kunkhyen Jangchub Bumpa, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, is regarded as the founder. Most activities of Sera Me and Sera Je, the other of the philosophical colleges of Sera, were consolidated in the 1990's.

Lhogyu Sera was apparently a Geluk monastery in Amdo, possibly Golok. It was in existence by the early twentieth century, when Dongak Chokyi Gyatso taught there.

Sera Choding is a hermitage located above Sera Monastery. Sera Choding was a primary hermitage site of Tsongkhapa, as well as of his close disciples, who meditated in nearby caves. It is said that Tsongkhapa composed his famous work entitled Ocean of Reasoning there. Sera Choding Hermitage was administered by Gyume Dratsang. 

Sera Ngagkpa Dratsang, the Tantric college of Sera Monastery, was established initially in 1419 by Jamchen Choje Shākya Yeshe and expanded in the eighteenth century by Lhazang Khan. It was initially the gathering hall for Sera and when a new gathering hall was constructed, the Ngakpa college expanded from its smaller building to the former gathering hall. The original building was then used as a ritual college. The Tantric College is the smallest of the three surviving colleges of Sera.

Chubzang is one of the many hermitages above Sera Monastery outside Lhasa. It was established by Trinle Gyatso, a student of the Fifth Dalai Lama, and is administered by the Sera Me College.

Sera Tekchen Chokhorling, located in Serta, was founded in 1736. In 1868, under the leadership of Sotrul Natsok Rangdrol Rinpoche (1869–1935), it was moved to the Sera Valley, where it still exists today. At that time, Sera was reorganized as a non-sectarian institution, having previously been a Nyingma institution in the Pelyul tradition. Sera Khandro Kunzang Dekyong Wangmo, who is named for the monastery, was invited by Sotrul Natsok Rangdrol to reside at Sera in 1924.

One among seventeen residential houses of Sera Je college of Sera Monastery.

Sera Monastery in exile was formally established in Bylakuppe in southern India in 1969. Sera monks intially resided at the refugee settlement at Buxa Duar, where monks from other monasteries lived before resettling in Karnataka. Me and Je colleges were reestablished, as well as libraries and printing houses. 

Seralung Ganden Damcho Ling was a Geluk monastery in Amdo. It was originally a Sakya monastery founded in the fifteenth century, and converted in the eighteenth.