Shedra

The phases and texts include:[10] The following texts were recommended by the 16th Karmapa as the basis for study in the shedra at Rumtek Monastery:[11] The shedra system at Sera Monastery, now relocated to southern India from Tibet, has a twelve- to twenty-year curriculum organized in the five topics.

The first five years are foundational and cover logic, epistemology, vinaya, and the terms and distinctions built upon in later philosophic study.

The next four years are devoted to studying specific texts, including Candrakīrti's Madhyamakavatara, Maitreya's Abhisamayalankara, and Dharmakīrti's Pramanavarttika.

The remaining four to eight years continue with Vasubandhu's Treasury of Manifest Knowledge and Gunaprabha's Vinayamula Sutra, and, for some students, study of Guhyasamāja tantra.

[9] Monastic education and a tradition of scholarship was not unique to Tibet, but was imported when Buddhism was brought from India initially by Shantarakshita.